Flock cameras in Pittsburg

Our Take

KOAM News Now's local segment on Pittsburg is a familiar pattern we've tracked across dozens of small and mid-sized American towns: a city council approves a Flock Safety contract, local police tout it as a crime-fighting tool, and a news crew shows up to film the cameras going up on poles. What rarely gets the same airtime is the back half of the story — where that license plate data goes, who else can access it, and how long it sits in a database that was never subject to a public vote on surveillance policy.

Flock's pitch is always the same: faster response times, recovered stolen cars, maybe a hit on a wanted plate. What local coverage like this tends to skip is that these systems log every passing vehicle, not just suspects, building a retroactive movement history on anyone who drives through town — churchgoers, ex-partners fleeing abuse, immigrants, journalists, all swept into the same dragnet. Pittsburg is small, but the infrastructure being installed there is identical to what's running in major metros, and it plugs into a nationwide network that can be queried by agencies far outside city limits.

We'd rather see Pittsburg's story include the questions that didn't make the segment: what's the data retention policy, which outside agencies have access, and was there any public comment period before cameras went live. If you want to see what's already been mapped near you, check our camera map, and if you'd rather push back on a local deployment than just watch it happen, our take-action page has a starting point.