Privacy concerns grow as Flock police cameras expand across Utah
The short version: KUTV's Salt Lake City report shows Utah joining the national pattern: Flock cameras multiply quietly until residents realize they're being tracked everywhere they drive.
Our Take
Credit to KUTV 2 News for putting a local face on a national story. Utah is just the latest state watching Flock Safety's network of automated license plate readers spread from a handful of intersections to a dragnet that logs where you drive, when, and how often — all without a warrant or, often, much public debate before the cameras go up.
The angle grinders and pickup trucks people are using on these cameras elsewhere in the country are a blunt response, but they're a symptom of something real: communities feel like this surveillance infrastructure was installed on them, not with them. Flock's pitch is always "crime-fighting tool," but 120,000 cameras scanning every plate that passes isn't a targeted investigation — it's a permanent, searchable record of ordinary people's movements, built by a private company and shared across thousands of police agencies with little independent oversight.
Utah residents don't have to find out where these cameras are the hard way. Check our camera map to see what's already watching your routes, and if you want to push back through your city council or state legislature instead of a hacksaw, our take-action page has the tools to do it.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of KUTV 2 News Salt Lake City, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.