DC Police Union alleges improper use of Flock camera data by MPD

Our Take

When the people pulling the trigger on a surveillance tool start blowing the whistle on their own bosses, that's worth paying attention to. ABC 7's report on the D.C. Police Union's allegations against MPD management is a reminder that "trust us, we have policies" has never been a real safeguard — it's a talking point. If the department's own officers are saying there's no real guardrail on how Flock data gets pulled and used, imagine how little oversight exists for everyone else with access to that pipeline.

This is the pattern we keep seeing nationwide: cities roll out Flock cameras promising narrow, consent-driven use, and then internal controls lag years behind the technology's reach. Audit logs exist on paper, but enforcement, transparency, and consequences for misuse are an afterthought. D.C. residents are now learning what communities across the country have already discovered — once a mass license-plate database exists, keeping it from being abused depends entirely on internal discipline that often isn't there.

Check our camera map to see where Flock is already watching your community, and head to our take-action page if you want to push back before your local department ends up in a headline like this one. Credit to WJLA/ABC 7 News for surfacing this story.