The Surveillance State Comes to Your Neighborhood: Flock Safety and ALPRs w/ Ed of DeFlock
The short version: J.G. Michael talks with DeFlock's Ed about how Flock's ALPR network turns every drive into a logged data point — and why the fix isn't tighter rules, it's ripping the cameras out.
Our Take
Good to see this conversation getting airtime outside the usual privacy-wonk circles. Ed lays out the basic mechanics that Flock Safety would rather you not think too hard about: every camera is a node in a nationwide, searchable ledger of where your car has been, and once that data exists, it gets shared, subpoenaed, and misused in ways no city council ever approved. That's the core of our argument too — this isn't about catching one stolen car, it's about building permanent infrastructure for tracking everyone.
The timing lines up with the National Week of Action Against ALPRs, and it's worth stressing the point Ed makes: regulation doesn't fix this. A policy memo doesn't stop a rogue officer from running plates for personal reasons, doesn't stop data-sharing agreements from quietly expanding, and doesn't stop the next vendor contract from loosening whatever limits existed on paper. The only durable fix is getting the hardware out of the community entirely.
If you want to see how far this has already spread near you, check our camera map, and if you're ready to push back locally, our take-action page has the tools to start that fight at the city council level, where these decisions actually get made.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of J.G. Michael, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.