How Grand Rapids Police are using Flock cameras
The short version: 13 On Your Side's look at Grand Rapids PD's Flock use is a reminder that 'transparency' reports are no substitute for real oversight of ALPR surveillance.
Our Take
Credit to 13 On Your Side for pushing Grand Rapids police to show their work on Flock Safety cameras. Any time a local newsroom gets officials to open up about how an ALPR network actually gets used — not just how it's sold to the city council — that's a win for public accountability. But a single news segment isn't the same as an audit, and "closer look" reporting often still relies on whatever data the department chooses to hand over.
That's the core problem with Flock's rollout nationwide: these systems log every passing vehicle, build searchable travel histories, and get shared across agency lines, yet the public rarely sees hard numbers on misuse, error rates, or how long footage really sits in the system. Grand Rapids residents deserve more than a PD-guided tour of its own surveillance tool — they deserve independent audits and real policy limits on retention and sharing.
If you want to see where these cameras are watching in your own community, check our camera map, and if you'd rather not wait for your local station to ask the hard questions, our take-action page has tools to push your city council for answers now.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of 13 ON YOUR SIDE, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.