Flock Safety cameras help solve crimes. But who’s watching the watchers?

Our Take

Credit to Atlanta News First for framing this story the way it should be framed. Yes, Flock Safety's ALPR network can help close cases — that's the pitch every police department hears before signing a contract. But "it helped solve a crime" is doing a lot of work to justify a system that logs the movements of everyone, guilty of nothing, every single day. The harder question — who actually audits these searches, and what stops an officer from running a plate for personal reasons — rarely gets a satisfying answer from the agencies running these networks.

That's the real story buried under every local news segment about a recovered stolen car or a located suspect: oversight is mostly self-reported. Flock's own audit logs exist, sure, but they depend on someone inside the department actually reviewing them, and on departments being willing to share what they find with the public. In most places, that's not happening in any meaningful way. A camera network with this much reach deserves more than a promise that it's being used responsibly.

If you want to see how far this surveillance net already extends in your own backyard, check our camera map. And if you think your city council or state legislature needs to hear from residents before renewing another Flock contract, our take-action page has the tools to make that happen.