Abington Township ditches Flock cameras over privacy concerns

Our Take

Credit where it's due: FOX 29 Philadelphia caught a rare win for privacy in the suburbs. Abington Township commissioners didn't just grumble about Flock Safety's license plate readers — they voted to replace them, citing data security concerns. That's a significant break from the usual script, where local governments sign multi-year contracts without asking hard questions about who else gets access to the data these cameras vacuum up, how long it's retained, or what happens when a hacker, a rogue employee, or an out-of-state subpoena comes knocking.

This matters because Flock's pitch to small towns is always the same: it's just a tool to catch stolen cars and wanted suspects. What rarely gets mentioned up front is that these cameras log every plate that passes, building a searchable movement history on ordinary residents who've done nothing wrong, and that data can flow to other agencies, including ones with very different enforcement priorities than your local police chief. Abington's commissioners apparently looked past the sales pitch and decided the risk wasn't worth it — a decision more township boards should be forced to confront in public before, not after, the cameras go up.

If you want to see whether a Flock camera is already watching your street, check our camera map, and if you'd rather your town have this debate before installation instead of after, our take-action page has the tools to make your voice heard at the next commissioners' meeting.