Join us in Austin!
The short version: Texas Civil Rights Project is turning ALPR awareness into a literal walking tour, proving that spotting surveillance infrastructure is a skill every resident can learn.
Our Take
Credit to Texas Civil Rights Project for doing something more organizers should try: getting people off their couches and onto the sidewalk to actually look up and find the cameras watching them. There's something powerful about turning abstract surveillance anxiety into a concrete, physical walk through your own neighborhood. When you see a Flock pole bolted to a stop sign a block from your house, the whole conversation about mass license plate tracking stops being theoretical.
This is also smart organizing. Teaching people how to identify ALPRs is the first step toward real accountability — you can't demand transparency from your city council about a system you don't know exists. Austin has had its own fights over Flock contracts and data-sharing policies, and events like this build the kind of informed, engaged public that can actually push back when city staff try to quietly renew a surveillance contract without debate.
If you can't make the Austin walk, you don't have to wait for one. Check our camera map to see what's already been documented near you, and head to our take-action page for tools to push your own local officials on transparency and oversight.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of Texas Civil Rights Project, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.