Palo Altans insist that if the City can't protect our data, don't let Flock collect it #deflock

Our Take

Credit to Matt Schlegel for getting boots-on-the-ground footage of something that doesn't happen often enough: ordinary residents showing up outside City Hall to say no to surveillance infrastructure before it becomes permanent. The chant捕捉的核心 — "if you can't protect it, don't collect it" — cuts straight through the marketing language Flock Safety uses to sell these systems to city councils. It's not an abstract privacy argument. It's a plain demand for accountability: show us your data security plan, show us who can access this, show us what happens when it leaks or gets subpoenaed or gets misused by an employee, and if you can't answer those questions, don't put the cameras up in the first place.

Palo Alto isn't unique in facing this fight, but it matters that residents there are pushing back at the city council level, which is exactly where these decisions get made with the least public scrutiny. Flock contracts get approved in consent calendars and budget line items, not ballot initiatives. A rally like this forces elected officials to answer for a system that quietly logs every car that passes a reader, stores it, and shares it across a nationwide network most residents never agreed to join.

If you want to see whether ALPR cameras have already gone up near you, check our camera map, and if you're ready to organize your own pushback, our take-action page has the tools to get started.