Boston has disabled all Flock cameras after learning the data was available to law enforcement

Our Take

Credit to US Daily News for flagging this one: if Boston really did shut down its Flock network after finding out the data wasn't staying local, that's a textbook example of what we keep warning about. Cities sign up for ALPRs thinking they're solving a parking lot theft or two, and then find out their drivers' movements are sitting in a searchable database that cops in other states can query without a warrant, a hearing, or even a heads-up to the city council that approved the cameras.

This is the core problem with Flock's business model — the "nationwide lookup" feature is the product, not a bug. Local officials keep discovering after the fact that turning on a few cameras for "public safety" actually plugs their town into a surveillance web that stretches coast to coast, with little transparency about who's searching your plate history and why. When a city the size of Boston balks, it's worth asking what every smaller town with a handful of Flock poles has actually signed up for.

If you want to see whether your own neighborhood is wired into this network, check our map. And if you'd rather your city council hear about this before the news breaks locally, our take-action page has the tools to get ahead of it.