Flock now admits federal agents have accounts to access local police data

Our Take

For months Flock has told worried city councils and reporters that its network isn't a backdoor for federal immigration enforcement. 9NEWS just poked a hole in that talking point: the company itself now confirms federal agents hold accounts that can reach into local police departments' license plate data. That's not a hypothetical risk anymore — it's an admitted feature of the system, and it means every town that signs a Flock contract is potentially signing up its residents for federal tracking they never voted on.

This is exactly the pattern we keep flagging: local governments buy these cameras to "solve car break-ins," and somewhere down the line the data pipeline quietly widens to include agencies with very different missions and very different rules of engagement. Once a federal account exists, local officials lose control over who's actually watching the plates that pass through their town, and "local oversight" becomes a nice phrase with no teeth behind it.

Credit to 9NEWS for getting Flock on record — that's the kind of reporting that forces these admissions into daylight. If your city runs Flock cameras, this is worth raising at the next council meeting. Check our camera map to see what's already watching your streets, and hit up take-action for ways to push back before federal access becomes the default.