Use of Flock Safety cameras growing across western Washington, raising privacy concerns

Our Take

KOMO News' report is the same story we've watched play out in county after county: a police department or city council quietly signs on with Flock Safety, cameras start sprouting on utility poles and intersections, and only after the network is already running do residents start asking what data is being collected and who gets to see it. Western Washington is just the latest region getting the rollout-first, questions-later treatment.

What rarely makes the local news segment is the scale of what these systems actually capture — every plate, every vehicle, every time, stitched into a searchable history of where people drive, parked in a database that can be queried by any agency with access, including out-of-state and federal requests. That's not a tool aimed at a specific suspect; it's a dragnet that logs the movements of everyone who happens to drive past, whether they've ever been accused of anything or not.

If you live in western Washington, or anywhere else, don't wait for a news crew to tell you a camera went up near your house. Check our map to see what's already been documented in your area, and if you want to push back on a proposal or demand answers from your local council, our take-action page has concrete steps to get started.