North Attleboro Town Council to discuss Flock cameras
The short version: North Attleboro hit pause on new Flock cameras and built an audit system — proof that public pressure can force real oversight before rollout, not after.
Our Take
Credit to WPRI for keeping local eyes on this one. North Attleboro didn't wait for a scandal to hit the brakes — the town council paused new camera installations and stood up an auditing system before things got out of hand. That's the order of operations every town should follow, and almost none do. Most places install first, ask questions never, and only start talking oversight after a resident finds out their plate got logged for a trip to the pharmacy.
An "auditing system" sounds good in a press release, but the real test is whether it's public, independent, and has teeth — who can pull search logs, how often, and what happens when an officer runs a plate for a personal reason instead of an actual investigation. Flock's own audit trail is only as good as the humans who are supposed to check it, and departments have a bad habit of grading their own homework. North Attleboro residents should be asking to see that audit policy in writing, not just hearing that one exists.
This pause is a rare window where a town can actually shape the rules instead of rubber-stamping a vendor's default contract. If you're in North Attleboro or anywhere else with cameras already up, check our map to see what's tracking your town, and hit up take-action for a template to push your own council toward real audits before the cameras go back up.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of WPRI, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.