This Week in Palm Bay (Episode 22): Flock Decommissioned & Woodard Park Murder Solved
The short version: Palm Bay's city council voted 4-1 to ditch Flock Safety, and crews are already hauling the camera poles away — a rare, tangible win against ALPR sprawl.
Our Take
Credit where it's due: Thomas Gaume and the Palm Bayer Watchdog crew (via dual anchors Rosie & Buzz) are doing the unglamorous work of covering city council minutiae that actually matters. A 4-1 vote to terminate a Flock Safety contract isn't a headline that trends nationally, but it's exactly the kind of local accountability that determines whether a network of license plate readers keeps quietly logging every car that passes through a town.
What stands out here is the follow-through — Public Works reportedly moving in to physically remove the camera poles, not just letting the contract lapse on paper while the hardware stays bolted to utility poles for months. That's the difference between a symbolic vote and an actual rollback of surveillance infrastructure. It's a reminder that these systems don't disappear on their own; someone on a council has to be willing to vote no, and someone has to show up with a truck.
Palm Bay joins a short but growing list of towns that decided the tradeoff wasn't worth it. If you want to see whether Flock or similar ALPR systems are running in your own zip code, check our camera map, and if you'd rather not wait for a lucky 4-1 vote, our take-action page has the playbook other communities used to get there.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of Thomas Gaume, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.