How To Spot A Flock Surveillance Camera #privacy
The short version: Musician-activist Benn Jordan breaks down the physical tells of Flock Safety ALPR cameras, arming everyday people to spot surveillance hiding in plain sight.
Our Take
Credit where it's due: Benn Jordan and the Security Ledger Podcast are doing the unglamorous work of teaching people to actually see the surveillance infrastructure that's been quietly bolted onto utility poles and intersections nationwide. Flock Safety has built a business model on cameras that blend into the streetscape — solar panel, small antenna, nondescript gray housing — precisely so nobody asks questions. A clip like this chips away at that camouflage.
This matters because consent and awareness are the first casualties of mass ALPR deployment. Most drivers have no idea their plate, location, and time of travel are being logged and piped into a database that police departments, and sometimes private entities, can query without a warrant. You can't push back on a system you can't identify, so field guides like Jordan's are a genuine public service, even packaged as a short clip for social media.
If this video has you looking twice at the poles in your neighborhood, put that instinct to work. Check our camera map to see what's already been documented near you, and add what you find. Then head to take action for concrete steps — from public records requests to city council pushback — to make automated tracking a live political fight rather than invisible infrastructure everyone shrugs past.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of The Security Ledger, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.