Stop Wrongful Arrests, Stop Face Surveillance Technology: No on AB 1814
The short version: ACLU California Action's video on AB 1814 shows how algorithmic 'matches' become false arrests, a warning sign for every automated surveillance system, including Flock's ALPR network.
Our Take
Credit to ACLU California Action for putting names and faces on a pattern too many people wave off as hypothetical. Face recognition systems keep generating false matches, and the people paying the price are overwhelmingly Black. AB 1814 would let police lean on these algorithmic guesses even harder. That's not a hypothetical civil liberties problem — it's a blueprint for how automated 'matches' turn into handcuffs before a human ever double-checks the work.
We cover license plate readers, not face recognition, but the underlying story is identical. Flock Safety pitches its ALPR network as generating mere 'investigative leads,' yet cops routinely treat a plate hit the same way this video describes face-match hits: as probable cause first, verification later. Once a machine's guess gets treated as evidence, the burden of proof quietly shifts onto the person who has to prove the algorithm was wrong. That's backwards, and it's exactly how wrongful stops and wrongful arrests happen.
If your town has bought into this same 'trust the algorithm' logic with a network of ALPR cameras, you should know where those cameras are and who's watching. Check our camera map to see what's tracking your plate, and hit our take-action page if you want to push back before automated leads become your town's next wrongful arrest.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of ACLU California Action, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.