Flock Surveillance: 20 Billion Images Tracked Monthly! #shorts
The short version: Auditing Reno 911's short spotlights the staggering scale of Flock's ALPR network, raising the real question of who controls that data once it's collected.
Our Take
Credit to Auditing Reno 911 for boiling down a scary number into a 60-second gut check: hundreds of thousands of Flock cameras allegedly pulling in billions of plate scans every month. Whether the exact figure is 20 billion or something in that neighborhood, the point lands — this is not a handful of cop cars with cameras, it's a nationwide, always-on dragnet quietly logging where you drive, when, and how often.
The video's real contribution is the question it leaves hanging: where does all that data actually go? Flock markets itself to local police departments, but data-sharing agreements, vague retention policies, and silence from vendors mean most residents have no idea who else can query their movements — other agencies, federal partners, or private actors with the right access. That opacity is the whole ballgame. A camera on every corner is a policy decision disguised as a product rollout, and almost nobody voted on it.
If a clip like this makes you want to know what's parked at the end of your own street, start with our camera map to see what's already been documented near you, then check our take-action page for ways to push back at the city-council level before the next contract renewal sails through unnoticed.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of Auditing Reno 911, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.