Flock's Own Manual for Spinning City Councils, GTFOH

Our Take

Credit where it's due: GTFOH Loudon County did the legwork the rest of us rely on, filing a public records request and surfacing Flock's own internal playbook for handling city councils. The title alone tells you what's inside — this isn't a how-to-explain-the-technology guide, it's a how-to-control-the-narrative guide. If a vendor needs to coach police departments on messaging discipline before they face elected officials, that's a tell, not a footnote.

The detail that should stop every council member cold is the advice to stop arguing that Flock's network isn't mass surveillance and instead just steer the conversation. That's not a defense of the technology, it's an admission that the honest answer is a liability. Pair that with the line about the story getting told either way — the only choice is who tells it — and you've got a company explicitly treating public accountability as a PR problem to be managed rather than a legitimate check to be answered. That's the posture of an industry that knows what it's selling can't survive a plain description.

This is exactly the kind of document that should circulate in every town considering a Flock contract, and GTFOH is doing the work by bringing it directly to Loudon's council meeting. If your city is weighing an ALPR deal, don't let the vendor's talking points be the only script in the room — check our camera map to see what's already been installed near you, and hit our take-action page for ways to get real oversight on the agenda before the contract gets signed.