Flock cameras are helping police solve crime in Virginia cities

Our Take

Credit to WSET ABC 13 for at least name-checking the ACLU pushback in their headline, even if the video itself reads like a Flock Safety press release. "100+ arrests" sounds impressive until you ask the follow-up questions this segment doesn't: how many of those arrests were for violent crime versus low-level offenses, how many innocent people got flagged and pulled over first, and who audited the search logs to make sure officers weren't running plates for personal reasons. Local news loves a tidy "technology solves crime" narrative because it's easy to film and easier to sell to a city council budget hearing.

What's missing is the other side of the ledger — the fact that Flock's network doesn't just catch the one guy police are looking for, it logs every single vehicle that passes, law-abiding or not, and stores that movement data for other agencies to query later. Officer Hudson training a department to "trust the system" is exactly the kind of quiet, department-by-department rollout that's turned thousands of American towns into surveillance checkpoints with zero public vote. Lynchburg isn't unique; it's a template.

If you want to see whether your own street already has one of these cameras watching you, check our camera map, and if you'd rather your city council hear from residents instead of just vendors and police PR, our take-action page has the tools to make that happen.