proj Shepherd Safety to "compliment" Flock-safety Data Capture
The short version: A YouTuber floats "Project Shepherd," a citizen surveillance scheme aimed at government officials that mirrors Flock's ALPR playbook — proof the surveillance logic cuts both ways.
Our Take
Credit to Y Lee for pointing a camera at the cameras, so to speak. The pitch here — tracking officials and staff to keep them "safe," using the same automated data-capture logic Flock Safety sells to police departments — is a clever bit of jiu-jitsu. If license plate readers and constant data collection are justified as a public safety good when aimed at ordinary drivers, the video asks, why not point that same machinery at the people writing the surveillance contracts?
We don't know the full scope or seriousness of this particular project, and we're not going to overstate what's a thin description. But the underlying provocation is worth sitting with: mass surveillance infrastructure doesn't stay confined to the use case it's sold under. Once a city normalizes always-on tracking and data retention for "safety," the technical and legal groundwork exists for that same tracking to be turned on anyone — drivers, protesters, journalists, or yes, bureaucrats. That's precisely the slippery-slope argument civil liberties groups have been making about Flock's network for years, and it's one reason transparency and strict limits matter more than vague promises of good intentions.
Whether you find a citizen-run "watch the watchers" project clever or alarming, it's a reminder that once ALPR networks exist, control over who gets watched is a political decision, not a technical inevitability. If you want to see how far this kind of camera network has already spread in your area, check our map, and if you'd rather push back on it than mirror it, our take-action page has concrete steps.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of Y Lee, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.