Lynchburg Police says Flock cameras help fight crime, some want more transparency
The short version: WSET's Lynchburg report shows police touting Flock cameras as a crime-fighting win while residents push back, demanding real transparency before trusting the system.
Our Take
Credit to WSET ABC 13 for putting a camera in front of both sides of this story: Lynchburg PD praising Flock Safety's ALPR network as an investigative win, and residents asking the harder question — who's watching the watchers? That tension is the whole ballgame with this technology. Departments love to lead with solved cases; they're far quieter about retention windows, audit logs, data-sharing agreements with other agencies, and whether anyone outside the department is actually checking for misuse.
"Transparency" shouldn't mean a press release and a ribbon-cutting. It should mean public access to search logs, clear policies on who can query the system and why, and real consequences when those policies get ignored — because they have, in city after city. Lynchburg residents pushing for more openness are doing exactly what every community with these cameras should be doing before the network quietly expands.
If you want to see how far this has already spread, check our camera map to find Flock deployments near you, and visit our take-action page for tools to push your local council for the transparency Lynchburg is still fighting for.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of WSET ABC 13, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.