Are Flock Safety cameras watching kids?

Our Take

Credit to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and reporter/producer Benn Jordan for digging into something Flock Safety would rather stay buried in a database nobody checks: internal audit logs. The fact that Dunwoody residents had to go looking for proof that company employees, not just local police, were peeking at footage near a community center used by kids says everything about how little transparency these systems actually offer the public that pays for them.

This is the core problem with ALPR networks dressed up as neighborhood safety tools — the access controls are only as good as the audit trail nobody sees until a reporter files a records request. 'Who can view this footage' isn't a hypothetical policy question when the answer includes private vendor staff with no electoral accountability and no obligation to explain why they logged in. Parents in Dunwoody are right to ask why a camera pointed at a place where children play has a user list that extends past city payroll.

If you want to know whether Flock or similar ALPR hardware is already sitting outside your kid's school or rec center, check our camera map, and if you'd rather not wait for an audit log leak to find out who's watching, see our take-action page for ways to push back at the city council level.