Frustration boils over at City Council meeting about Flock cameras
The short version: New Bedford residents packed a city council meeting and got loud enough to shut it down just as officials tried to push Flock cameras through, per NBC 10 WJAR.
Our Take
Credit to NBC 10 WJAR for capturing what happens when a city council tries to rubber-stamp a surveillance contract and the public actually shows up. New Bedford's meeting didn't get derailed because people were confused about what Flock cameras do — it got derailed because they understood exactly what was being voted on and weren't willing to let it slide through on a quiet Thursday night.
This is the pattern we keep seeing play out city after city: officials treat ALPR adoption as a routine procurement item, residents find out it's actually a blanket license-plate tracking network with vague retention policies and third-party data sharing, and the room gets loud. A council that has to call a second meeting because the first one couldn't survive public scrutiny isn't a sign of disorder — it's democracy doing exactly what it's supposed to do when a surveillance expansion gets proposed without real debate.
If you're in Massachusetts or anywhere else watching your city quietly add Flock hardware to the budget, don't wait for the vote to find out. Check our camera map to see what's already deployed near you, and use our take-action resources to show up prepared before your own council tries to slide one past an empty room.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of NBC 10 WJAR, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.