Activists want Flock out of their Northeast Ohio cities
The short version: Northeast Ohio residents are petitioning their cities to drop Flock Safety's ALPR contracts, pushing back against unchecked automated surveillance in their own neighborhoods.
Our Take
News 5 Cleveland's report is a reminder that pushback on Flock Safety doesn't just happen in statehouses or courtrooms — it happens on front porches, with neighbors collecting signatures and showing up to council meetings. When residents in these Northeast Ohio cities started asking hard questions about who has access to their movements, stored in a database they never consented to, city officials were forced to actually explain themselves instead of rubber-stamping a renewal.
This is exactly the kind of grassroots friction that keeps mass surveillance from becoming invisible wallpaper. Flock's pitch is always the same: it's just for solving crimes. But once the cameras are up, there's no built-in mechanism stopping mission creep, data sharing with federal agencies, or quiet indefinite retention. Petitions like these force a public reckoning that contracts signed behind closed doors never get.
If you want to see whether your own city has Flock cameras watching your commute, check our map, and if you're ready to organize like these Ohio residents did, our take-action guide has the tools to get started.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of News 5 Cleveland, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.