“Defund the Police 2.0” vs. Privacy: Arizona’s Flock Camera Showdown

Our Take

Jen's Two Cents frames Arizona's Flock fight as a culture-war binary: you're either for cops or you're defunding them. That's a convenient way to avoid the actual question, which isn't whether police should exist, it's whether a private company should be allowed to build a searchable, networked log of everyone's driving habits with minimal oversight, audit trails, or public input.

Calling privacy advocates "anti-police" also ignores that plenty of conservatives, civil libertarians, and even some sheriffs have raised the same concerns about mission creep, data sharing across state lines, and the lack of warrants required to query these systems. Wanting guardrails on a surveillance network isn't the same as wanting no police response at all — it's asking that the response be accountable and proportionate.

We appreciate Jen's channel putting Arizona's debate in front of a wider audience, even if we think the "Defund 2.0" framing muddies more than it clarifies. If you want to see how dense this coverage already is in your own state, check our camera map, and if you'd rather do something about it than just read about it, our take-action page has concrete steps for pushing back at the city council level.