What the Flock!?

Our Take

Privacy Academy's new video, "What the Flock!?", does a solid job walking through what a lot of our readers already feel in their gut: these cameras are going up faster than any public debate about them can keep pace with. The pitch is always "safety," but as the video points out, the actual rollout looks less like a targeted tool and more like a blanket surveillance grid getting laid down block by block, city by city, with little scrutiny before the contracts are signed.

That's the part that should worry people regardless of politics. A single Flock camera reading your plate isn't the issue — it's the network. Once thousands of these cameras are networked together and sharing data across jurisdictions, you've built an infrastructure that can track anyone's movements over time, no warrant required. The video is right to frame this as something happening at global scale and startling speed, because the normal checks — city council hearings, public comment, media coverage — just aren't moving at the same velocity as the install trucks.

We appreciate Privacy Academy putting this in front of a wider audience; the more people who understand how this tech actually works, the harder it gets for departments to install it quietly. If you want to see what's already been deployed near you, check our camera map, and if you're ready to push back at a city council meeting or file a records request, our take-action page has templates to get you started.