It's not just Flock
The short version: EFF reminds us Flock is one node in a sprawling surveillance industry — the fight has to be bigger than one company.
Our Take
EFF's point is one we hammer on constantly: Flock Safety makes for an easy villain because its cameras are everywhere and its marketing is loud, but the company is a symptom, not the disease. Behind every ALPR network sits a broader ecosystem of data brokers, cloud contracts, police info-sharing agreements, and vendors who'd happily replace Flock tomorrow if public pressure ran it out of town. Swapping one logo for another doesn't fix the underlying problem: a surveillance-industrial complex built on the assumption that constant tracking of ordinary people is just the cost of modern policing.
That's why we treat Flock as a case study, not the whole story. The same playbook — blanket camera coverage, vague retention policies, quiet data-sharing with federal agencies, little independent oversight — shows up across the industry whenever a city signs a contract without asking hard questions first. Credit to EFF for zooming out and naming that pattern instead of letting the conversation stay narrowly fixated on one brand.
If you want to see how deep this goes in your own backyard, check our camera map for documented ALPR locations near you, and head to take action for concrete steps to push back on surveillance contracts before they become permanent fixtures.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of EFForg, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.