Mass Surveillance Not The Solution to Societal Problems, asserts Cindy Cohn, former ED at EFF
The short version: Cindy Cohn argues mass surveillance worsens societal problems rather than solving them, a warning directly applicable to Flock's ALPR network.
Our Take
Matt Schlegel's channel caught a sharp moment from Indivisible Palo Alto Plus' Democracy Forum, where Cindy Cohn — the former EFF Executive Director who just spent thirty years fighting digital surveillance — laid out a simple but uncomfortable truth: slapping more cameras and sensors on a problem doesn't fix it, it just creates a permanent record of everyone's movements while the underlying issue goes untouched. That's the exact argument we keep making about Flock Safety's ALPR network. Departments buy in promising safer streets, but what they're really buying is a searchable log of where you drove, when, and how often, with little evidence it reduces crime and plenty of evidence it expands who gets watched.
Cohn's decades of litigation give her a long view that's worth taking seriously. She's seen how surveillance infrastructure, once installed, rarely gets removed and almost always finds new uses beyond its original pitch. That's the pattern with Flock: a camera justified for stolen cars becomes a tool for tracking immigration status, reproductive health trips, or political protest attendance — all without a warrant, and often without the public ever voting on it.
If your town is discussing a Flock contract, this talk is a good primer on why 'it's just for safety' arguments deserve pushback, and why community control frameworks like the ACLU's CCOPS model matter. Check our camera map to see what's already watching your neighborhood, and hit our take-action page if you want to push back before the next contract gets signed.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of Matt Schlegel, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.