Riding bikes is not a crime! #mtb #meme #flocksafety
The short version: The Bike Bro's meme jab at Flock Safety is a joke, but it points at a real truth: ALPR networks treat everyone, cyclists included, as a suspect by default.
Our Take
Credit where it's due: The Bike Bro's bit lands because it's absurd in exactly the way mass surveillance is absurd. Flock Safety's pitch to police departments is about catching stolen cars and fleeing felons, but the cameras don't know the difference between a getaway car and a guy loading his mountain bike onto a rack. The system logs plates, locations, and timestamps for everyone who drives past, no warrant, no suspicion required, which is the punchline and the problem in one.
That's the core issue we keep hammering on at DeFlock The USA: these networks aren't targeted tools, they're dragnets. A joke about bikers getting flagged works because it's only a small exaggeration of how ALPR data actually gets used, swept up indiscriminately and stored long after any legitimate policing purpose has expired. Humor is a decent gateway into that conversation, but the stakes are not a laughing matter once you consider who else ends up in that database and why.
If this clip got you curious about whether your own neighborhood is wired up, check our camera map to see what's nearby, and head to take action if you want to push back on your local council or department.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of The Bike Bro, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.