Have you noticed these strange cameras popping up in your neighborhood?

Our Take

Andy Diaz is asking the question a lot of people are only now starting to ask: what is that little solar-powered box on the pole by the neighborhood entrance? That moment of noticing is exactly how most people first encounter Flock Safety's ALPR network — not through a press release or a city council vote they remember hearing about, but by literally spotting the hardware in the wild and wondering why it's there.

That's the design problem in a nutshell. These cameras are marketed to HOAs and small towns as a quiet, low-maintenance safety upgrade, but the actual function is a permanent log of every vehicle that passes, timestamped and searchable, often shared across a regional or even national data-sharing network most residents never agreed to. Nobody voted on being tracked every time they drive to the grocery store, yet that's the practical effect once one of these units goes up.

Credit to Andy Diaz for putting a spotlight on something so many drivers pass without a second glance. If this video made you look twice at the poles in your own neighborhood, check our map to see what's already been reported near you, and visit take action for ways to push back at the local level.