The Flock Surveillance Vote
The short version: Berkeley's council renewed its Flock ALPR contract despite pushback, a reminder that these fights are won or lost in unglamorous council meetings.
Our Take
Credit to The Daily Californian for actually showing up to the council meeting and filming the vote — most local surveillance decisions happen with zero press in the room. Berkeley renewing its Flock Safety contract "while not" fully addressing the concerns raised (the description cuts off, but you can guess the shape of it) is the standard playbook: a well-funded vendor pitch about stolen cars and Amber Alerts, a handful of public commenters raising due process and privacy red flags, and a council that ultimately defers to the police department's wish list.
What matters here isn't just Berkeley. It's that every one of these renewals gets easier to wave through the second and third time around. The cameras become infrastructure, the data-sharing agreements get treated as boilerplate, and the initial promises about narrow use cases quietly expand. That's exactly how ALPR networks have crept into thousands of jurisdictions with almost no federal guardrails — one "routine" council vote at a time.
If you're in Berkeley or anywhere else with Flock gear on the poles, don't wait for the next renewal cycle to start asking questions. Check our camera map to see what's already been deployed near you, and use our take-action guide to push your own council for real transparency before the next vote sneaks through.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of The Daily Californian, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.