Flock cameras: SJPD credits tech for solving crimes, groups raise privacy concerns

Our Take

Credit to Damian Trujillo and NBC Bay Area for putting both sides on camera, because that's rarer than it should be. San Jose PD says Flock helped crack cases, and sure, a network that photographs every plate that passes will occasionally catch a stolen car or a fleeing suspect. That's not in dispute. What's in dispute is whether a permanent, searchable log of everyone's movements is a reasonable price to pay for those wins, and whether anyone outside the department gets a real say in that trade-off.

Notice the pattern: police departments lead with the solved-crime anecdotes, and it's left to outside groups to raise the actual privacy concerns — the retention windows, the data-sharing agreements, the lack of independent audits, the fact that a system built to catch car thieves can just as easily be repurposed to track protesters, journalists, or an ex-partner if the wrong person has login access. San Jose isn't unique here. This is the exact same fight happening in city council chambers across the country, usually with the same imbalance of information.

If you're in the Bay Area or anywhere else wondering whether Flock has quietly shown up in your town, check our camera map to see what's already been documented near you, and if you want to push back on a proposed deployment or renewal, our take-action page has concrete steps for showing up at the meeting that actually matters.