Flock worker calls police on our reporter filming them in public

Our Take

Credit to InvestigateTV and reporter Brendan Keefe for capturing this on camera, because the irony writes itself: a company that bolts always-on cameras to public poles and runs plates through law enforcement databases got squeamish when someone pointed a lens back at its own worker doing that exact job, in public, in plain view. Filming a public installation from a public place is about as clearly protected as activity gets. Calling the cops on a journalist for it isn't a legal strategy, it's a message — one that says surveillance is fine when Flock does it to you, but scrutiny of Flock is somehow out of bounds.

This kind of reflexive defensiveness matters because it's a small window into how the company and its installers think about accountability. If a routine pole install triggers a 911 call, imagine the internal culture around actual public records requests, city council questions, or audits of who's pulling plate data and why. Transparency shouldn't be an inconvenience, and a reporter with a camera is not a threat — unless you're worried about what people might see.

If you want to know whether one of these cameras has gone up near you, check our map, and if you'd rather your city not roll these out unchecked, our take-action page has concrete next steps.