Solar-powered Flock cameras record vehicle details in real time to alert police about crimes

Our Take

The video from I DON'T EXIST reads like the Flock Safety press kit come to life: solar panel, camera, algorithm, alert, arrest. What it doesn't mention is that every single plate captured by that camera — not just the ones tied to a stolen car or a warrant — gets logged with a timestamp and GPS coordinate and stored, often for a month or more, in a database that can be queried by any agency plugged into the network. "Crime prevention" is the marketing word. "Permanent location tracking of everyone who drives past" is the actual product.

That distinction matters because these systems don't ask for probable cause before they start recording you. They just run, 24/7, building a movement history on every driver in range whether or not you've ever been suspected of anything. Multiply one camera by the thousands going up in neighborhoods, along highways, and outside apartment complexes nationwide, and you get a de facto national tracking grid stitched together by a private company and shared across police departments with little public oversight or audit trail.

Videos like this one are useful because they show you exactly what the hardware looks like and how casually it's framed for the public — which is exactly why it's worth checking whether one of these boxes is already watching your street. Check our camera map to see what's nearby, and if you want to push back on installations in your own town, our take-action page has the tools to start.