Flock camera concerns amid deputy charges

Our Take

WTHR's report out of Indiana lands on a problem we've flagged again and again: Flock Safety's entire pitch rests on the promise that access to its nationwide camera network is tightly controlled and audited. When law enforcement officers themselves are the ones allegedly misusing that access, the company's "trust us" model takes another direct hit. Badges aren't a substitute for real oversight, and self-reported audit logs mean little if nobody outside the department is actually checking them.

This isn't an isolated glitch — it's the predictable outcome of handing thousands of officers nationwide the ability to query a database that tracks where cars (and the people driving them) go every single day. No warrant, no court order, just a login. Every time a story like this breaks, it confirms what critics have said from day one: the system is built for convenience and scale, not accountability. And for every case that gets caught, there's no telling how many quiet misuses never surface at all.

Credit to WTHR for pushing on this. If you want to see whether Flock or other ALPR cameras are already watching your own neighborhood, check our map, and if you're ready to push back locally, our take-action page has concrete steps for getting your city council to ask hard questions before renewing these contracts.