Did Flock Lie to the West Virginia Legislature? #flock #surveillance #transparency

Our Take

Tristan Leavitt's video digs into a question that should worry anyone who cares about honest government: what exactly did Flock Safety tell West Virginia legislators when it was pitching its license plate reader network? If a surveillance vendor is shading the truth to the very lawmakers deciding whether its cameras get a green light, that's not a technicality — it's the whole ballgame. Statehouses across the country are being asked to regulate a technology most legislators don't fully understand, and they're relying heavily on the vendor's own representations to do it.

This is exactly the pattern we've flagged in state after state: Flock shows up with polished talking points about solving crime, while the harder questions — data retention, who can access the feeds, audit logs, out-of-state law enforcement queries — get glossed over or answered in ways that don't hold up to scrutiny. When a company that profits from blanket surveillance is also the main source lawmakers use to evaluate that surveillance, you get laws written around marketing instead of facts. Credit to Leavitt for pulling that thread in West Virginia specifically.

Wherever you live, it's worth asking the same question about your own city council or legislature: did they get the straight story, or the sales pitch? Check our camera map to see what's already been deployed near you, and if you want to push back on secretive rollout processes, our take-action guide has concrete steps for making your local officials answer for it.