The Anne & Mimi Crabbiness Hour.
The short version: Holyoke Media's Anne & Mimi dig into city council operations and voting procedure — a reminder that surveillance contracts like Flock Safety deals get decided in exactly these overlooked local meetings.
Our Take
Credit to Holyoke Media's Anne and Mimi for doing what most outlets won't: actually explaining how city council operations and voting work. It's not flashy content, but it's the stuff that matters. Decisions about police budgets, vendor contracts, and yes, ALPR networks like Flock Safety, don't happen in press releases — they happen in procedural votes most residents never watch.
That's the real takeaway here. Surveillance infrastructure gets approved the same boring way a pothole budget does: a line item, a quick council vote, maybe a consent agenda nobody reads closely. If you don't know how your city council operates, you won't notice when a camera contract slides through without real debate. Shows like this one are a public service precisely because they demystify that process.
If you want to know whether your own town has already said yes to license plate readers, check our camera map, and if you want to start pushing back before the next vote happens quietly, our take-action page has a place to start.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of Holyoke Media, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.