Alexandria police to make map of Flock camera locations public

Our Take

Credit where it's due: Fox 5 Washington DC flags a real step forward here. Alexandria officials responding to public pressure by agreeing to publish a map of their Flock Safety camera locations is exactly the kind of baseline transparency that should be standard everywhere, not a concession wrung out of a department after the fact. For years, departments have treated camera placement as need-to-know information, even though it's the public's cars, streets, and movements being logged.

But a public map answers only one question: where are the eyes. It says nothing about who can query the data, how long it's retained, whether it's shared with federal agencies or out-of-state police, or what happens when the system misfires and sends an armed officer to the wrong car. Those are the policy questions residents should be pushing their council members on now that the location fight is being won. Transparency about placement is step one; transparency about use and oversight is the part most departments still fight tooth and nail to avoid.

We track locations like these nationwide so residents don't have to take a department's word for it — check our camera map to see what's near you, and if your city hasn't been this forthcoming, use our take-action resources to start asking the same questions Alexandria residents just got answered.