‘A Flock of VULTURES’: Inside the growing movement against AI-powered surveillance

Our Take

MS NOW's segment puts a number on something we've watched build community by community: 23 states with contract suspensions or cancellations in 2026 alone, and 400+ cities now organizing against Flock's camera networks. That's not a fringe reaction — that's a bipartisan revolt against a private company quietly building one of the largest vehicle-tracking databases in the country, one city council contract at a time.

The framing of "vultures" is blunt, but it captures the core problem: these systems get sold to local governments as a tool for solving specific crimes, then quietly expand into dragnet surveillance with data-sharing agreements most residents never voted on or even knew existed. When cities start asking hard questions about retention policies, audit logs, and who else gets access to that data, the answers rarely hold up — which is exactly why so many contracts are getting torn up.

Credit to MS NOW for putting a national lens on a fight that's mostly happened in scattered city council meetings and local news stories. If you want to see whether Flock or similar ALPR cameras are operating near you, check our camera map, and if your city hasn't had this conversation yet, our take-action page has what you need to start it.