Flock cameras face nationwide backlash over privacy and misuse concerns

Our Take

Charleston's WCHS-TV just put a local news lens on a story we've been chasing since day one: Flock Safety's camera network is facing a credibility problem, and it's spreading coast to coast. When a mainstream TV station starts running segments calling these things "the worst guard dog in history," that's a sign the public mood is shifting from quiet acceptance to open skepticism.

The pattern is familiar — a city council approves cameras for a narrow purpose like stolen vehicles, and then the data ends up queried for unrelated investigations, shared across jurisdictions, or accessed by people who had no business looking. Misuse isn't a hypothetical risk with this technology; it's a recurring headline. Every plate scanned, every timestamp logged, every car tracked without a warrant adds up to a surveillance dragnet that was never put to a public vote in most towns where it operates.

Credit to WCHS-TV for giving this the local airtime it deserves — these fights get won or lost at the city council level, not in Washington. If you want to see whether Flock has already set up shop near you, check our camera map, and if you're ready to push back, our take-action page has the tools to get started.