We lost our ability to say no to surveillance, reminds author Cindy Cohn, former Exec Dir of EFF
The short version: Cindy Cohn traces today's surveillance dragnet back to the post-9/11 collapse of our ability to say no, and Flock cameras are the latest example.
Our Take
Matt Schlegel's clip of Cindy Cohn — the longtime EFF leader and author of Privacy's Defender — speaking at Indivisible Palo Alto Plus's Democracy Forum cuts to the heart of why ALPR networks like Flock Safety spread so fast with so little public debate. Cohn's point that we lost our collective ability to say no to surveillance after 9/11 isn't nostalgia; it's a diagnosis. Emergency powers and "security" framing became the default lane for rolling out tracking tech, and three decades later that lane runs straight through your neighborhood intersection in the form of a camera logging every plate that passes.
What makes this talk worth your time is the reminder that none of this was inevitable. Cities adopted Flock cameras through quiet council votes and vendor sales pitches, not open referendums. That's exactly the gap that local CCOPS-style ordinances — the kind ACLU has pushed for years — are meant to close: forcing public notice, use-policies, and audits before the hardware goes up, not after.
If you want to see how far this has already spread in your own area, check our camera map, and if you're ready to push back at the city-council level, our take-action page has the tools to start saying no again.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of Matt Schlegel, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.