Anti-Flock campaign collects signatures for ballot initiative in WV town
The short version: Huntington residents are bypassing a city council that already approved Flock cameras, gathering signatures across all nine districts to let voters decide the technology's fate directly.
Our Take
Credit to WCHS-TV for capturing something we don't see often enough: a community refusing to accept 'no' from its own elected officials. Huntington's council approved Flock Safety contracts in July over loud public objection, and instead of grumbling and moving on, the Huntington Community Action Group is doing the hard, unglamorous work of door-to-door signature gathering to force a public vote. That's democracy functioning exactly as it should when representatives get out of step with the people they represent.
Katie Norman's line about 'opening a door we don't need to open' cuts to the core of the ALPR debate. Once a city wires itself into a third-party surveillance network — one that logs every vehicle, every driver, every pattern of movement, searchable by agencies far beyond city limits — there's no quiet way to close that door again. Ballot initiatives like this one are one of the few remaining checks citizens have against mass surveillance creep, especially when council votes happen fast and public comment gets steamrolled.
Huntington won't be the last town to face this fight, and it shouldn't have to reinvent the playbook alone. Check our camera map to see what's already been installed near you, and visit our take-action page for tools to push back before your own council votes behind closed doors.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of WCHS-TV, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.