He Hacked Flock Cameras. What He Found Was Worse Than Expected

Our Take

Benn Jordan doesn't need an introduction to anyone who's been paying attention to this fight, but for the newcomers: he's one of the first big YouTubers to actually poke at Flock Safety's cameras and find that the security was, to put it charitably, an afterthought. In this new interview with Business Reform, he revisits that reporting and pushes further into the question that matters more than any hacking demo — does any of this actually make communities safer, or does it just make them more watched?

That distinction between solving crimes after the fact and preventing them before they happen is the whole ballgame. Flock and departments that buy its gear love to tout clearance numbers, but independent, non-vendor-funded evidence that ALPR networks reduce crime is thin to nonexistent. When the company selling the surveillance is also the one producing the studies proving its own necessity, that's not research, that's marketing with a citation. Benn's willingness to say that plainly, to a growing audience, is exactly the kind of scrutiny this technology has dodged for years while it quietly blanketed thousands of towns.

We'd add one thing to the conversation: unsecured or not, every one of these cameras is logging your plate, your location, and your movement patterns whether or not it ever gets hacked. That's the real vulnerability. Check our camera map to see what's already watching your street, and head to take-action if you'd rather your city council hear from you before the next contract renewal than after.