Who’s watching you? Uproar over this SURVELLIANCE unites AOC, DeSantis, Abbott, Sanders

Our Take

When AOC and Ron DeSantis end up on the same side of an issue, pay attention. That's exactly what's happening with license plate readers in Texas, according to MS NOW's Marc Santia, who traveled to several Texas cities to document a genuinely bipartisan backlash against Flock Safety's camera networks. This isn't a partisan talking point — it's a rare moment where "law and order" conservatives and privacy-minded progressives are looking at the same data-hungry camera on the same street pole and arriving at the same conclusion: this has gone too far.

What makes this story worth watching is the pattern it reveals. Local governments quietly sign contracts with Flock promising public safety wins, and then residents start asking basic questions — who else can access this data, how long is it stored, what happens when it's shared across state lines or with federal agencies — and the answers are rarely reassuring. Texas, of all places, is proving that skepticism of a always-on surveillance dragnet isn't a left or right issue. It's a American issue about whether every trip you take should be logged, searchable, and shared without your knowledge or consent.

We've been tracking this expansion for a while now, and the more communities dig in, the more of them start pushing back or demanding real oversight. If you want to see how dense this camera network already is in your area, check our map, and if you're ready to do something about it, our take-action page has the tools to get started.