Concerns over police and Flock Cameras after misuse cases

Our Take

When a retired assistant chief goes on camera to call out cops misusing Flock Safety's ALPR network, it's worth paying attention. FOX 2 Detroit's segment with Steve Dolunt isn't an activist or a privacy advocate making the case against mass surveillance — it's a veteran of the system saying the quiet part out loud: these cameras get abused, and the people running the program often can't or won't stop it.

This is the pattern we keep seeing. Departments sell Flock to city councils with promises of strict audit logs, narrow use policies, and accountability. Then officers run plates for personal reasons, stalk exes, or snoop on neighbors, and the "robust oversight" turns out to be a log nobody reviews until a scandal forces the issue. Multiply that by the thousands of Flock cameras now blanketing American streets and you get a surveillance dragnet with every driver's movements recorded, searchable, and vulnerable to whoever has access and bad intentions.

The lesson isn't that a few bad apples exist — it's that a system built to track everyone, all the time, will always tempt misuse, no matter how many policies are printed. Check our camera map to see what's watching your own neighborhood, and head to take action if you want to push back on unchecked ALPR deployment where you live.