Debate over Flock Cameras rages in Monterey Park

Our Take

KTLA 5's report out of Monterey Park captures something we see play out in city council chambers across the country: a police department selling automated license plate readers as a crime-fighting slam dunk, and a chunk of the public asking who else gets to see that data, for how long, and why nobody asked them first. Credit to KTLA for actually putting residents' skepticism on camera instead of just running the department's talking points as gospel.

The pattern is familiar. Flock pitches itself to city councils with promises about solving car break-ins and recovering stolen vehicles, and those numbers get repeated at press conferences. What rarely gets equal airtime is the back end: a searchable database of everyone's comings and goings, shared across a network of agencies that can stretch into other states, with retention and access policies that most residents never voted on and most council members barely scrutinized before approval.

Monterey Park isn't unique, and that's the point. This is the same debate happening block by block as Flock's footprint grows nationwide. If you want to see whether your own neighborhood has been wired up without a public conversation, check our camera map, and if you're ready to push back at a city council meeting like the one brewing in Monterey Park, our take-action page has the tools to get started.