'Mass surveillance': Community questions use of Flock cameras in Fresno

Our Take

Credit to CBS47/KSEE24's YourCentralValley.com team for getting Fresno residents on camera saying the quiet part out loud: this isn't a targeted crime-fighting tool, it's a dragnet. Every plate, every driver, every trip logged and stored regardless of whether anyone's suspected of anything. When a community starts using the phrase "mass surveillance" in a local news segment, that's a sign the sales pitch from Flock and the police department isn't matching what people are actually seeing bolted to poles around their neighborhoods.

The Fresno pushback follows a familiar script we've documented elsewhere: quiet council approvals, vague crime-reduction promises, and little public discussion about who can access the data, how long it's kept, or whether it gets shared with other agencies, including federal immigration enforcement or out-of-state police in states with different laws. Once residents start asking those questions, the answers are often thinner than expected. That gap between marketing and reality is exactly why this fight is spreading city by city.

If you're in Fresno or anywhere else wondering whether these cameras are already watching your street, check our camera map to see what's been documented near you, and if you want to push back like Fresno residents are doing, our take-action page has concrete steps for raising this with your local council.