Data centre blocked by judge and the town won
The short version: A judge sided with a town fighting an unwanted data center, a small but telling win for communities pushing back on surveillance-adjacent infrastructure.
Our Take
The channel Digital ID, Mass Surveillance and Digital Currency flags a local win worth paying attention to: a judge blocked a data center project after a town organized against it. We don't have the full court record in front of us, so we won't pretend to know every legal nuance, but the headline is clear enough — residents said no, and for once the system listened.
Data centers matter to the surveillance fight even when they're not explicitly tied to license plate readers. They're the backbone that stores and processes the flood of data coming off cameras, sensors, and ALPR networks like Flock Safety's. When a community successfully stalls one of these builds, it's a reminder that local zoning boards, courts, and public pressure are still real levers against the quiet expansion of surveillance infrastructure — even when the fight doesn't start with the word 'surveillance' at all.
That's the same leverage we push people to use against Flock's ALPR cameras showing up on street corners with little public input. Check our map to see what's already been deployed near you, and if you want to push back locally the way this town did, our take-action page has the tools to get started.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of Digital ID, Mass Surveillance and Digital Currency, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.