‘We’re funding our own surveillance’: North Texans slam Flock cameras

Our Take

That headline — "we're funding our own surveillance" — cuts right to the absurdity of the Flock Safety business model. Cities and HOAs pay a recurring subscription fee to a private company so that company can photograph every car that passes, build a searchable database of residents' movements, and often share that data with agencies far outside the town that paid for it. Courier Texas did the legwork of showing up to a DeFlock Tarrant County meeting and letting regular residents say in their own words why that trade bothers them. That's valuable, grounded reporting, and we're glad to see local outlets giving these rooms coverage instead of letting the issue stay buried in city council agendas nobody reads.

What's happening in Tarrant County is happening in city halls across the country: a quiet vote approves a camera contract, months pass, and then residents start noticing the poles, the flashes, the fine print about data sharing and retention. By the time people show up to object, the system is often already running. That's exactly why grassroots pushback matters — it's usually the only check on a surveillance rollout that otherwise sails through on vendor promises about "solving crime."

If you want to see whether this is already in your own neighborhood, check our camera map for documented Flock locations near you, and if you're ready to push back the way North Texans are doing, our take-action page has the tools to start.