Eastpointe Doesn't Give A Flock

Our Take

Add Eastpointe to the growing list of cities deciding that a network of always-on license plate cameras isn't worth the price tag or the privacy trade-off. As journalist Michael Perna reports, the city council's 4-1 vote to end its Flock Safety contract didn't happen in a vacuum — it's the product of residents and officials asking hard questions about what these cameras actually deliver versus what they cost, both in dollars and in civil liberties.

This matters because Flock's pitch to small and mid-size municipalities is almost always the same: crime is scary, the tech is cheap, and the data stays local. What rarely gets mentioned up front is how that data can be pooled, shared across jurisdictions, and accessed by outside agencies with little public oversight. When a council takes the time to actually scrutinize the contract instead of rubber-stamping it, that's a win worth noting — and a playbook other towns can follow.

Credit to Perna for putting a local story in front of a wider audience; these fights rarely make national news, but they're exactly where the surveillance debate gets decided. Want to see if a Flock camera is already watching your commute? Check our camera map, and if you're ready to push back in your own city, our take-action page has the tools to get started.