Flints Flock Cameras Are Back On The Agenda! #flintmichigan #flintmi #flinthistory #flocksafety
The short version: Flint quietly expanded its Flock network with a $199,550, two-year deal for 31 more cameras, and Austin Ketzbeau's video shows how easily these contracts slide through city council.
Our Take
Austin Ketzbeau's report on Flint's city council records lays out something we see in town after town: a six-figure surveillance expansion getting approved with little public fanfare. Thirty-one new Flock cameras for roughly $200,000 over two years isn't pocket change, and it's a significant jump in a city that already has ALPR infrastructure on the books.
What makes this worth watching isn't just the dollar figure — it's the pattern. These agreements routinely get adopted in routine council sessions, often without residents realizing their daily movements are about to be logged in far more detail. Flint joins a long list of cities where "public safety" line items quietly become permanent surveillance grids, with little independent audit of who accesses the data or how long it's retained.
Credit to Ketzbeau for digging into the council paperwork and putting a local lens on a national trend. If you want to see how Flint's camera count compares to your own city, check our camera map, and if you'd rather not wait for the next contract to sneak through, our take-action page has steps for pushing back before the vote happens.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of Austin Ketzbeau, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.