3 Cheektowaga dispatchers suspended over Flock misuse

Our Take

Credit to WIVBTV for digging into this one. Whenever a Flock story breaks about "misuse," the department usually says as little as possible, and the public is left to fill in the blanks. But the headline alone tells you everything you need to know about the real risk of ALPR networks: it's rarely some outside hacker breaking in. It's the person who already has the login.

This is the pattern we see over and over wherever these cameras get installed. Departments promise the data is locked down, audited, and only used for serious investigations. Then it turns out dispatchers, officers, or other staff were running plates for reasons that had nothing to do with public safety — curiosity, personal disputes, favors for someone they know. Three suspensions in one department is not a rounding error, it's a sign that the guardrails Flock Safety and local police love to tout on paper are a lot leaker in practice.

Cheektowaga residents deserve a full accounting of what those three dispatchers actually did with the system, not a quiet HR footnote. If your town has one of these cameras watching your commute, check our map to see where, and visit take action for ways to push your city council for real transparency and audit logs before the next misuse story breaks.