Flock’s new safeguards. comment below: how do these changes make you feel? #flockcameras #flock
The short version: Ryan Girdusky flags Flock Safety's newly announced 'safeguards,' but self-policing by a surveillance vendor is no substitute for public oversight.
Our Take
Ryan Girdusky over at It's a Numbers Game is asking a question worth sitting with: when the company selling the cameras announces its own 'safeguards,' who exactly is being protected? Flock Safety writing its own rulebook is a bit like a landlord grading his own building inspection. It might be a step in the right direction, but it's not accountability — it's PR dressed up as policy.
Real safeguards don't come from a vendor's press release. They come from public records requests that actually get answered, city councils that vote on ALPR contracts in the open, and independent audits nobody at Flock gets to approve first. Until then, any 'new safeguard' is voluntary, reversible, and unenforceable the moment it becomes inconvenient for Flock's bottom line or a police department's convenience.
Credit to Ryan for putting this in front of his audience and sparking the comment-section debate. Our job is to make sure that conversation doesn't stop at a YouTube video. Check our camera map to see what's already watching your neighborhood, and head to take-action if you want to push for the kind of oversight that doesn't depend on a company's goodwill.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of It's a Numbers Game with Ryan Girdusky, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.