Morton group against Flock

Our Take

Small-town pushback like this matters more than it might seem. When residents in a place like Morton, Illinois start showing up to meetings and asking hard questions about automated license plate readers, it signals that the Flock Safety sales pitch — "it's just for catching stolen cars" — isn't landing the way local governments hoped. Credit to WMBD News for putting a camera on this and giving these residents a platform.

These cameras log every passing plate, building a searchable history of where you drive, when, and how often — all without a warrant, and often without the public ever voting on it. A local group organizing against that is exactly the kind of grassroots friction that forces city councils to actually justify these contracts instead of rubber-stamping them.

If you want to see whether Flock or similar ALPR systems have already shown up in your own town, check our camera map, and if you're ready to push back the way Morton residents are, our take-action page has a starting playbook.