Lincoln County Sheriff Ends Use of Controversial Flock Cameras
The short version: A rural Idaho sheriff reversed course on Flock cameras after Shoshone residents pushed back, proving public pressure can actually roll back surveillance creep.
Our Take
Credit to Idaho News 6 for covering a story that doesn't get nearly enough airtime: a win. Lincoln County Sheriff Renee King is pulling Flock Safety cameras out of Shoshone after residents raised hell about privacy and what happens to all that license plate data once it's collected. That's not a small thing. Most of these rollouts happen quietly, with a council vote or a sheriff's signature and zero public debate. Here, people actually showed up, asked hard questions, and got results.
What makes this notable is the size of the place. Shoshone isn't a major metro with a big ACLU chapter and a press corps watching every move — it's a small Idaho community, which means this wasn't some well-funded campaign. It was neighbors deciding they didn't want a permanent, networked camera system logging every car that passes through their town, feeding into a database that's shared well beyond county lines. When a sheriff in a county that size listens to that and acts on it, it's proof the 'this is just how it works now' narrative around ALPRs isn't inevitable.
Every removal matters because these systems are designed to spread quietly and never shrink. If you want to see whether Flock or similar ALPR cameras have shown up near you, check our camera map, and if you'd rather not wait for a viral local news story to make your city reconsider, head over to take-action for ways to get the conversation started in your own town.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of Idaho News 6, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.