Can Flock cameras find him? License plate technology aids search after Vero Beach homicide

Our Take

Credit to CBS12 News and reporter Katie Bente for getting cameras inside the room most of us never see: a Real Time Crime Center, where Indian River County Sheriff Eric Flowers walked them through how analysts are using Flock Safety's license plate network to chase leads on Matthew Waggle, a person of interest in a Vero Beach-area killing. This is the pitch Flock and its law enforcement partners love to make in public — a dramatic, high-stakes manhunt, a tidy demonstration of the technology's upside. It's a good story, and it's also only half the story.

What rarely gets mentioned in these segments is everything that happens on the other 364 days of the year, when there's no homicide, no person of interest, just an ever-growing database quietly logging the comings and goings of everyone who drives past one of these cameras — churchgoers, ex-partners fleeing abuse, journalists, people visiting a clinic, totally innocent commuters. A single dramatic case doesn't tell you how long that data sits, who else can query it, whether it's shared across agencies or states, or what happens when the system gets it wrong and flags the wrong car. Sheriffs are understandably eager to show the wins; they're far less eager to walk a camera crew through the audit logs.

None of this means the technology can't ever help solve a real crime. It means the public deserves the same transparency about routine surveillance that it gets about the rare manhunt. Check our camera map to see what's already watching your own streets, and visit our take-action page if you want to push your local government for real oversight instead of just a good news segment.