North Attleborough town officials debate use of Flock cameras in town
The short version: North Attleborough officials are publicly split on Flock cameras, and NBC 10's report shows the fight is far from settled before this month's follow-up vote.
Our Take
Credit to NBC 10 WJAR's Maddie Heimsch for capturing something we don't see enough of: elected officials actually arguing about Flock Safety in public, on the record, before the contract is signed and the cameras are bolted to poles. Most towns get a vendor pitch, a quiet procurement line item, and the ALPR network is live before residents even know there was a debate to have. North Attleborough is doing this the right way — out loud, with pushback.
That pushback matters because the pitch is always the same: faster car-theft recoveries, help finding missing persons, a tool for 'public safety.' What rarely gets equal airtime is the other side of the ledger — a permanent log of every plate that passes through town, shared across a nationwide network, queryable by other agencies with little local oversight, and vulnerable to misuse or breach. A council split on this isn't being obstructionist; it's doing basic due diligence that most towns skip entirely.
If you're in North Attleborough or anywhere else watching a Flock proposal move through your town, don't wait for the vote to find out it already passed. Check our map to see what's already deployed near you, and use our take-action resources to push for real debate — public records requests, data-sharing audits, sunset clauses — before the cameras go up, not after.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of NBC 10 WJAR, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.