Why This Sheriff ENDED His Department’s Flock Contract
The short version: A sitting sheriff telling Congress he dropped Flock Safety is a rare law-enforcement admission that ALPR dragnets aren't worth the cost or civil liberties risk.
Our Take
When a county sheriff walks into a congressional hearing and says he canceled his department's Flock Safety contract, that's news worth paying attention to. As Mrs. Dave the Lawyer lays out in this video, Pinal County Sheriff Ross Teeple isn't some outside activist — he's the guy who actually ran the program, and he decided it wasn't worth keeping. That kind of inside account carries weight precisely because it doesn't come from the usual privacy-advocate corner.
Law enforcement leaders rarely go on record against ALPR vendors, since the sales pitch — "it's just a camera, it solves crimes" — is an easy one to repeat. A sheriff breaking from that script, in front of Congress no less, suggests the cost-benefit math isn't as clean as Flock's marketing claims. We don't have the full transcript here and we're not going to pretend we do, but the fact that a contract got cut at all tells you these deals aren't the slam-dunk public-safety tools they're sold as.
Every one of these cameras, whether it stays active or gets pulled, is part of a bigger network that's been quietly blanketing American roads. Check our map to see what's watching your plates, and if your local agency is still writing checks to Flock, head to our take-action page for ways to push back.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of Mrs. Dave the Lawyer, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.