How Albert Fox Cahn Is Ending Illegal Police Surveillance | Hide & Speak

Our Take

Verified Privacy's Hide & Speak series tips its hat to Albert Fox Cahn and the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project this week, and it's a well-deserved nod. Cahn's work forcing the NYPD to disclose its secret surveillance arsenal through the POST Act, and now pushing to ban facial recognition, is exactly the kind of grinding, detail-oriented advocacy that actually moves the needle. Surveillance fights aren't won with outrage alone — they're won with lawsuits, public records requests, and city council testimony that nobody wants to sit through but somebody has to.

We cover a narrower slice of this same fight: Flock Safety's ALPR cameras quietly multiplying on streets across the country, often with zero public debate before installation. The throughline between Cahn's NYPD disclosure battles and our ALPR tracking is the same — government agencies deploying surveillance tech first and answering questions never, unless residents and watchdogs force the issue. New York's POST Act is proof that transparency mandates can work when someone refuses to let the question drop.

If this video gets you thinking about what's watching you locally, check our map to see if Flock cameras have already landed in your town, and visit take action for templates on getting answers from your own city council before the cameras become permanent fixtures nobody remembers approving.