Audit sparks fears over misuse of Flock cameras
The short version: CBS News highlights a Flock audit revealing misuse concerns, but some cities are just swapping Flock for other ALPR vendors instead of ditching license plate surveillance altogether.
Our Take
Joseph Cox of 404 Media, who's done some of the sharpest reporting on Flock Safety's data-sharing practices, breaks down for CBS News what audits keep turning up: cameras being queried for reasons that have nothing to do with the crimes they were supposedly installed to solve. This is the pattern we keep seeing nationwide — a system sold as narrow and accountable that, once installed, gets used however the person with login access wants to use it.
The part that should worry people most isn't just the misuse itself, it's the response. Instead of some cities asking whether they need networked ALPR surveillance running 24/7 on every driver at all, they're reportedly just shopping for a different vendor. Swapping Flock for a competitor doesn't fix the underlying problem — mass, warrantless tracking of ordinary people's movements — it just changes the logo on the black box. Audits are only useful if they lead to actual constraints on data retention, sharing, and access, not a procurement shuffle.
This is exactly why we track where these cameras go up in the first place. Check our map to see what's watching your community, and if you want to push back on a system with no real oversight, our take-action page has the tools to start that fight locally.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of CBS News, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.