turn on your phone and smile to the #flock #camera #spycat
The short version: A short, wry clip from creator Thomas Wilkerson captures a Flock ALPR camera in the wild, reminding viewers they're being logged whether they smile or not.
Our Take
Thomas Wilkerson's clip is short and snarky, but the joke lands because it's true: that camera isn't checking if you're having a nice day, it's capturing your plate, your location, and your direction of travel, then feeding it into a searchable database your local department may share with hundreds of other agencies. "Smile" is the punchline because there's no opting out — you don't consent to this scan, you just drive past it.
Clips like this matter because they make the invisible visible. Most people have no idea how many of these poles exist on their daily commute, or that a single trip to the grocery store can generate a permanent, queryable record of where you were and when. Humor is a good hook, but the underlying infrastructure is no joke — it's a nationwide tracking network built without much public debate.
If this video made you look twice at the poles near your house, check our camera map to see what's already logging you, and head to take-action for ways to push back at the city council level.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of Thomas Wilkerson, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.