New trouble brewing for Flock cameras, officer says they could be putting people's info at risk

Our Take

When the pushback on Flock Safety starts coming from inside the house — an actual officer flagging that these camera networks could be putting people's information at risk — it's worth paying attention. 11Alive's reporting adds to a growing pile of evidence that the 'trust us, it's just for catching bad guys' pitch doesn't hold up once you look at how much data these systems vacuum up, who can access it, and how loosely it's sometimes secured.

This is the same story we keep seeing city after city: a surveillance system gets installed with minimal public debate, then months or years later someone on the inside admits the guardrails aren't what residents were promised. Every plate scanned is a data point tied to a place and a time, stitched together into a movement history that was never supposed to exist for ordinary people just driving to work or church.

Credit to 11Alive for getting an officer on record about this. If you want to see whether these cameras are already watching your street, check our map, and if you want to push back where you live, our take-action page has concrete next steps.