Some Wilder residents frustrated with city's installation of Flock Cameras
The short version: KTVB captured Wilder residents pushing back hard at a chaotic city council meeting over Flock camera installations nobody seemed to fully explain beforehand.
Our Take
Credit to KTVB for showing what a lot of these Flock rollouts actually look like up close: a small-town council meeting derailed by residents who feel a surveillance system got installed in their community before anyone bothered to ask them. That pattern is depressingly familiar. A police department or city administrator signs a contract, a vendor bolts cameras to poles, and the public finds out only when the hardware is already reading their plates.
Wilder isn't a big city, and that's exactly the point. Flock's sales pitch works everywhere, but the accountability structures that are supposed to catch bad deals — public hearings, budget scrutiny, an engaged press corps — are often thinnest in small towns. When residents show up angry and interrupting a meeting, it's usually because the quiet channels for raising concerns never existed in the first place.
If you're in Wilder or anywhere else wondering whether your town already has these cameras watching your daily commute, check our map to see what's been documented near you, and use our take-action resources if you want to push your own council to slow down and actually explain what they bought.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of KTVB, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.