Worthington Schools drop Flock: how much privacy are we giving away?
The short version: WSYX ABC 6 reports Worthington Schools backing off Flock ALPRs, reigniting the core question: why trade student and family privacy for a false sense of security?
Our Take
Credit to WSYX ABC 6 for pushing this story past the district press release and into the actual tradeoff: once a school system starts feeding license plate data into a networked surveillance system, that data doesn't stay in the parking lot. It gets pooled, queried, and shared across jurisdictions in ways most parents never agreed to and most school boards never fully explain.
Schools are an easy sell for this tech because "safety" is such a powerful word, but Flock cameras don't stop threats — they log everyone's comings and goings, including every teacher, parent, and delivery driver who ever drives past campus. That's a permanent record of ordinary life, built on the promise of security theater. Worthington backing away, even partially, is a sign that communities are starting to ask the harder question: what are we actually buying with this surveillance, and who else gets to use it later?
If your local school district or city council is quietly rolling out ALPRs, check our camera map to see what's already been installed near you, and use our take-action resources to push for transparency before the cameras go up, not after.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of WSYX ABC 6, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.