Chief Kennedy: Why Flock Cameras are Changing Quincy Policing
The short version: Flock's own promotional video lets a Quincy police chief praise 50 ALPR cameras as a 'game changer,' but offers no independent data on accuracy, scope, or oversight.
Our Take
Worth noting up front: this isn't a news story, it's a marketing video produced by Flock Safety itself, featuring a police chief who was handed a camera and a script to praise the product that his department bought. That doesn't mean Chief Kennedy is wrong that the system helped close cases, but a vendor-produced testimonial is the least skeptical source imaginable for evaluating a surveillance network now covering an entire city.
What's missing is everything that actually matters for accountability: how many of Quincy's residents had their plates logged who were never suspects in anything, how long that data sits in Flock's servers, who else can query it, and what happens when the system flags the wrong car. 'Speed and precision' sounds great in a sales reel; it sounds different when it's your plate that gets misread as a stolen vehicle and you're the one at gunpoint during a traffic stop. Fifty cameras is also just a baseline — these networks tend to expand quietly, camera by camera, long after the press release fades.
If you live in or near Quincy, or anywhere else Flock is rolling out, check our camera map to see what's already watching your commute, and visit our take-action page for ways to push your city council for real transparency and retention limits before 50 cameras becomes 500.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of Flock, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.