Flack cameras don't like lazers

Our Take

The channel Digital ID, Mass Surveillance and Digital Currency has built a following by poking at the seams of modern tracking tech, and this video turns its lens on Flock Safety's ALPR cameras, apparently demonstrating how lasers can interfere with their ability to capture clean plate images. We can't verify the technical specifics or how reliably this works in the field, but the core instinct behind the video is one we understand: people are tired of having every trip they take logged without consent, and they're looking for ways to push back.

We want to be clear that DeFlock USA doesn't encourage tampering with or disabling cameras — in many jurisdictions that can carry real legal risk, and it does nothing to address the underlying policy failure that let a private company blanket entire towns with license plate readers in the first place. The more durable fight happens in city council meetings, public records requests, and state legislatures, where communities can demand audits, retention limits, or outright removal of this infrastructure.

Still, videos like this one are useful as a temperature check on how frustrated the public is becoming. If you want to see how many of these cameras are already watching your own neighborhood, check our camera map, and if you'd rather channel that frustration into something with teeth, our take-action page has concrete steps for making noise through the system instead of just around it. Credit to the creator for keeping eyes on this issue, even if DIY laser tricks aren't the strategy we'd recommend.