Demonstrators rally against Flock cameras on night of City Council vote

Our Take

Seventy-plus people showing up to a council meeting isn't nothing. New Bedford residents did exactly what we keep telling folks to do: they showed up in person, in numbers, right after their own police department was forced to suspend its Flock program over an alleged stalking case. Credit to Anastasia Lennon and the New Bedford Light for being on the ground and pushing this story before it became a council agenda item.

This is the abuse case that Flock's sales pitch never mentions. The company loves to talk about stolen cars and Amber Alerts, but the real-world track record includes officers running plates on exes, family members, and people who did nothing but exist near a camera. New Bedford didn't have to imagine a worst-case scenario — they got a live one, and it took a whistleblower and a local newsroom to surface it, not the department's own oversight.

Suspending the program is a start, not a finish line. The hardware doesn't disappear just because a council tables a vote, and departments have a nasty habit of quietly restarting these programs once the news cycle moves on. If you're in New Bedford or anywhere else with Flock infrastructure, check our camera map to see what's actually watching your streets, and use our take-action guide to make sure your council doesn't let this fade into a routine renewal next budget cycle.