What San Luis police say about Flock cameras, privacy and data access
The short version: San Luis's police chief admits residents were never told before Flock cameras went up in 2021, and outside agencies can still get footage.
Our Take
Credit to Arizona's Family (3TV/CBS 5) for getting San Luis Police Chief Nigel Reynoso on record, because the admission buried in this segment is the whole ballgame: the department has been running Flock ALPR cameras since 2021 and never told the public before installing them. That's not a technicality, that's the pattern nationwide — quiet purchase orders, no council debate, no public comment period, and residents finding out years later that every trip to the grocery store has been logged.
The chief's other talking points are the standard Flock script. Data auto-deletes after 30 days "unless" it's pulled for an investigation — a loophole big enough to keep anything indefinitely if an officer decides it's relevant. Outside agencies can get footage through a formal search request or, in some cases, direct camera access, which means San Luis's network isn't really San Luis's network — it's one node in a regional and potentially national data-sharing web that residents never voted on and can't audit. "Discipline up to termination" for misuse sounds reassuring until you ask how misuse gets detected in the first place, since these systems mostly run on trust and internal audit logs that departments rarely release to the public.
If your city hasn't had this conversation yet, don't wait for a local news crew to force the issue. Check our camera map to see what's already watching your streets, and use our take-action guide to push your council for the public notice, audit trail, and data-sharing limits San Luis skipped.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of Arizona’s Family (3TV / CBS 5), published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.