We Tracked the Secret Police Microphones Hidden Everywhere | WIRED
The short version: WIRED mapped hidden ShotSpotter mics city by city, exposing the same secrecy playbook Flock uses to hide license plate readers from the public.
Our Take
Credit to WIRED's reporting team for doing the unglamorous work of physically tracking down ShotSpotter microphones that cities refuse to disclose. This is the same fight we're having with Flock Safety cameras: a private company deploys sensors across public streets, city officials sign contracts, and residents are left to guess where the surveillance actually lives. Secrecy isn't a side effect of these systems — it's the business model. Vendors know that public location data invites scrutiny, FOIA requests, and pushback, so they keep it vague on purpose.
ShotSpotter has already been dragged through years of controversy over accuracy, wrongful arrests, and quiet expansion into audio surveillance beyond just gunshot detection. Flock is following a familiar arc: pitched as a narrow public-safety tool, then quietly networked into a searchable, retroactive tracking system with almost no independent audit of who queries it or why. When journalists have to reverse-engineer a city's own surveillance footprint, that's a signal the oversight process has failed.
If you want to know what's actually watching your neighborhood instead of waiting for a news crew to map it for you, check our camera map, and if you're ready to push back on unaccountable surveillance contracts in your city, our take-action page has next steps.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of WIRED Investigations, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.