End Flock Safety AI licensce plate readers in middle tennessee.

Our Take

Credit to Mikal Qualls for doing what too few people do: turning frustration with Flock Safety's license plate cameras into an actual call to action instead of just another complaint thread. Middle Tennessee has quietly become one of the denser Flock deployment zones in the country, and most residents driving past these cameras every day have no idea their movements are being logged, stored, and shared across a network that extends far beyond their own city limits.

That's the core problem with ALPR systems like Flock's: they're marketed as tools for solving specific crimes, but they operate as blanket surveillance infrastructure, sweeping up data on every driver regardless of suspicion. Once that data exists, it can be queried by other agencies, shared across jurisdictions, and retained well past whatever narrow justification got the camera installed in the first place. Local officials rarely disclose the full scope of that sharing when they approve these contracts.

Videos like this matter because change on this issue happens at the city council level, not in Washington. If you want to see how many of these cameras are already watching your own commute, check our camera map, and if you're ready to push back where you live, our take-action guide walks through how to raise this with local decision-makers before the next contract renewal.