Flock Watches You. Film Them and Police Show Up.
The short version: A Flock contractor called the cops on a reporter filming public camera installation — proving these networks are more comfortable surveilling you than being watched themselves.
Our Take
Credit to Thin Blue Lies for catching this one on camera: a journalist points a lens at a Flock Safety install happening in plain view on a public street, and within minutes a worker is dialing 911. The irony writes itself. A company that built its entire business model on photographing every car that passes a given point, no warrant required, apparently gets nervous when someone turns that same documentary impulse back on them.
This isn't really about one skittish contractor. It's about the posture these companies and their police partners take toward public accountability. Flock systems are installed on public right-of-way, funded with public money, and justified to city councils as a matter of public safety. That means the public has every right to watch them go up, ask questions, and record the process. When the reflex is to summon law enforcement instead of answering a basic question, it tells you how these partnerships actually view transparency: as a threat to be managed, not a obligation to be met.
If you want to know whether your own street has one of these cameras, check our map before you find out the hard way. And if you're tired of watching this play out camera by camera, city by city, our take-action page has concrete steps for pushing back at the local level, where these contracts actually get signed.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of Thin Blue Lies, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.