13 Action News Big Story: Fight for and against Flock
The short version: A Toledo news report frames Flock Safety as more than local cameras — it's a nationwide surveillance network, and that's the real story.
Our Take
Credit to WTVG's 13 Action News for zeroing in on the part of this story most local coverage glosses over: it's not really about a camera on a pole at one intersection. Every Flock ALPR is a node feeding a searchable, shareable database that police departments across the country can query, often with little oversight and no warrant required. When Toledo debates "support and criticism" of Flock, they're actually debating whether to opt their community into that national grid.
That distinction matters because local city council votes get sold as narrow, practical decisions — solve this carjacking, find that stolen car — while the actual product being purchased is participation in a surveillance network that can track a car's movements across state lines, long after the original case is closed. Once that data exists and can be queried by thousands of agencies, the "it's just for serious crimes" pitch stops meaning much.
If you're in Toledo or anywhere else wondering whether your neighborhood is already wired into this network, check our camera map to see what's nearby, and if you want to push back before your city council rubber-stamps another contract, our take-action page has the tools to get organized.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of WTVG 13 Action News | Toledo, OH, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.