Is this Flock camera emitting Bluetooth?
The short version: A hobbyist's Bluetooth scan of a Flock camera raises fresh questions about what these devices quietly broadcast beyond license plate scans.
Our Take
Credit to Sophia_Ops for doing the unglamorous work that Flock Safety and local police departments rarely volunteer: actually pointing a scanner at one of these cameras to see what it's talking to. Whether or not the Bluetooth signal in question turns out to be diagnostic chatter, a maintenance interface, or something else entirely, the fact that an independent citizen has to go find out for themselves says everything about how little transparency surrounds these installations.
This is the core problem with ALPR deployment in America: these boxes go up on telephone poles and intersections with zero public hearing on what hardware is inside, what protocols it runs, or what else it might be capable of beyond reading plates. A stray Bluetooth signal is a small detail, but it's exactly the kind of detail that should have been disclosed before installation, not discovered after the fact by someone with a hobbyist scanner.
If you want to know whether there's a camera like this near you, check our map before assuming your block is clean. And if your city council hasn't held a real public comment period on their Flock contract, that's the opening to push through — see take-action for how to get started.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of Sophia_Ops, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.