Flock Safety ALPR Cameras ft. Madalyn McGunagle from The Rhode Island ACLU (CU S2 Ep 17)
The short version: Cumberland Unfiltered sits down with the RI ACLU's Madalyn McGunagle to unpack how Flock ALPR cameras are creeping into Rhode Island towns with little public debate.
Our Take
Credit to Cumberland Unfiltered for giving local civil liberties advocates airtime that cable news and city council meetings rarely do. Having Madalyn McGunagle from the Rhode Island ACLU on to talk through Flock Safety's camera network is exactly the kind of grassroots scrutiny this technology needs — most residents have no idea these cameras exist until someone points them out, let alone that they're logging every plate that passes, building a searchable record of who drives where and when.
That's the core problem ACLU chapters keep raising state by state: these systems get sold to town councils as a narrow tool for recovering stolen cars, but the data collection is total and the retention and sharing rules are often an afterthought bolted on after the contract is signed. Once a plate-read database exists, it tends to get pulled into things far beyond its original pitch — other agencies, other states, other purposes — and residents rarely get a vote on that expansion.
If you want to know whether these cameras have already landed in your neighborhood, check our camera map, and if you're ready to push back at a town meeting like Cumberland's, our take-action page has the tools to get started.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of Cumberland Unfiltered, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.