Flock announces changes amid backlash over license plate reader network
The short version: Flock's promised 'fixes' after AP-documented abuses are a PR reflex, not a policy overhaul, and the surveillance network keeps growing regardless.
Our Take
WKYC Channel 3, running the AP's national reporting, lays out the pattern we've been tracking for a while: Flock Safety only moves when the heat gets bad enough. Lawmakers from both parties, civil liberties groups, and ordinary residents have been raising the same concerns for years — that a nationwide camera network logging every passing vehicle, shared freely across thousands of agencies, is a surveillance apparatus first and a crime-fighting tool second. Now that the abuses are documented and public, Flock says it's making changes. Convenient timing.
Notice what isn't changing: the cameras aren't coming down, the data-sharing web across state lines isn't shrinking, and the fundamental business model — selling access to your daily movements to any agency willing to pay — stays intact. Software tweaks and audit promises are easy to announce and easy to quietly walk back once the news cycle moves on. The real question is whether any city council or state legislature uses this moment to actually cut ties or impose hard limits, rather than accepting Flock's word that this time it's different.
If your town has one of these cameras, or you're not sure, check our map to see what's already watching your street. And if you want to push back before your city signs another multi-year contract, our take-action page has the tools to make your voice heard at the next council meeting.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of WKYC Channel 3, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.