People Are Now Mapping the Cameras That Map YOU 👀

Our Take

Derrick Evans put his finger on something we've been saying since day one: the exact legal logic Flock Safety uses to justify photographing every car that passes by — "it's all public space, no expectation of privacy" — applies just as well to the cameras themselves. If a camera bolted to a pole can legally photograph your plate, your face, your bumper stickers, then the public can just as legally photograph, GPS-tag, and publish the location of that camera. Turnabout isn't just fair play here, it's the same rulebook Flock wrote.

This is exactly why crowdsourced mapping projects matter, even when they're incomplete and imperfect. Evans is right to caution that no map captures every camera — deployments change, new nodes get installed, some get taken down. But the larger point stands: a surveillance network that operates in total secrecy, with no public registry, no consistent signage, and no accountability to the people it watches, is far more dangerous than one that's been mapped and scrutinized. Sunlight is the point.

We keep our own camera map for exactly this reason — so you can see what's watching your commute, your kid's school route, your neighborhood. If this is the first time you're thinking about how to push back locally, our take-action page has concrete steps, from public records requests to city council talking points. Credit to Derrick Evans for putting a spotlight on the irony — the watchers really don't like being watched.