Why Cities Are Rejecting Flock Cameras #securitycameras #commercialsecurity #securitytechnology
The short version: A commercial security channel's take on why cities are ditching Flock cameras shows even industry insiders see the backlash building.
Our Take
It says something when the pushback against Flock Safety isn't just coming from privacy advocates and civil liberties groups — it's showing up in commentary from the security industry itself. Backstreet Surveillance, on their Beyond the Demo: The Ground Truth Podcast, is digging into why cities are walking back or rejecting these ALPR contracts. When the people who sell cameras for a living start asking why municipalities are saying no, that's worth paying attention to.
We don't have the full breakdown of their reasoning here, but the pattern lines up with what we've tracked for a while: contracts get signed fast on a sales pitch about catching stolen cars and fighting crime, and then residents and council members start asking basic questions nobody answered up front — who has access to the data, how long is it stored, what happens when it's shared with other agencies or federal databases, and what recourse exists when the system gets something wrong. Once those questions hit a city council meeting, the shine wears off fast, and some communities decide the tradeoff just isn't worth it.
That's exactly the kind of scrutiny every city with a Flock deployment — or a pending vote on one — deserves. If you want to see how far this network already reaches, check our camera map, and if there's a proposal moving through your town, our take-action page has what you need to push back before the cameras go up, not after.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of Backstreet Surveillance | The Security Experts, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.