Flock controversy: Sac Sheriff responds, company changes rules
The short version: ABC10 reports Sacramento's sheriff defending Flock ALPRs as the company announces new 'safeguards' — but policy tweaks from a vendor aren't the same as accountability.
Our Take
ABC10's report out of Sacramento follows a pattern we've seen play out in city after city: local law enforcement leans on a surveillance vendor's crime-fighting pitch, community pushback builds over privacy and data-sharing concerns, and Flock Safety responds not with independent oversight but with self-authored 'safeguards.' Credit to ABC10 for pressing the sheriff's office on camera, but the real story is who gets to write the rules for a nationwide network of license plate readers — and it's not the public.
When a company changes its own policy in response to controversy, that's a PR move, not a regulation. Flock still controls the data pipeline, still decides what audits look like, and still isn't subject to the kind of binding legislative limits that would actually protect Sacramento drivers from dragnet tracking. A sheriff saying 'trust us' isn't a substitute for public retention limits, audit trails, or a hard no on federal data-sharing.
If you're in the Sacramento area or anywhere else, check our camera map to see what's already watching your commute, and hit up take-action for ways to push your local council or sheriff for real transparency instead of vendor-authored talking points.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of ABC10, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.