The creepy side of Flock cameras.
The short version: Smerconish's CNN segment asks the question we ask every day: are Flock cameras public safety tools or a quiet national surveillance net?
Our Take
When a mainstream cable news host starts asking whether license plate cameras are "creepy," you know the conversation has shifted. Michael Smerconish's segment, pulling from the fuller CNN report, is doing exactly what we've been pushing for: forcing a public reckoning with tech that got installed in thousands of towns with almost no debate. Flock Safety built an empire by pitching these cameras to city councils as a simple crime-fighting tool, while quietly assembling one of the largest privately-run vehicle tracking databases in the country.
The "safety vs. surveillance" framing isn't a false choice — it's the real tension at the heart of this technology. A camera that photographs your plate to catch a stolen car is also a camera that logs every car that passes, creates a permanent record of where you drove, and shares that data across a network most residents never approved and can't opt out of. That's not hypothetical creepiness. That's the design.
We're glad national outlets are catching up to what local reporters and privacy advocates have been flagging for years. If this segment has you wondering whether your own neighborhood is wired up, check our map to see what's already watching your street, and visit our take-action page if you want to push back where you live.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of Michael Smerconish, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.