York County Residents Push to Remove Flock Cameras Across the Area
The short version: Nearly 900 York County, SC residents signed a petition demanding removal of Flock ALPR cameras, a sign that local pushback against blanket plate surveillance is growing.
Our Take
Credit to South Charlotte Report for putting a number on something we hear anecdotally all the time: people don't like finding out, often after the fact, that a private company's cameras are logging their every drive through town. Nearly 900 signatures in York County isn't a landslide, but it's a real signal that residents are asking the basic question elected officials rarely raise on their own — who approved this, what's the retention policy, and why wasn't the public asked first?
Flock's pitch is always the same: solve crimes, find stolen cars, keep kids safe. What gets left out is that these systems create a searchable log of where every car goes, run by a private vendor, with data-sharing agreements that can stretch far outside the county line. A petition doesn't guarantee cameras come down, but it forces a public vote or a public explanation — and that's exactly the kind of friction this technology is designed to avoid by rolling out quietly.
If you want to see whether York County — or your own town — has Flock cameras already logging plates, check our map. And if you'd rather not wait for a petition to gain traction before your local council answers questions, our take-action page has tools to push the issue yourself.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of South Charlotte Report, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.