The secret war on Flock license plate cameras
The short version: NewsNation reports on growing backlash against Flock ALPRs, from vandalism to misuse complaints, underscoring that these cameras are far from neutral crime tools.
Our Take
NewsNation's segment puts a spotlight on something we've been tracking for a while: the gap between how Flock Safety markets its license plate readers and how communities actually experience them. A "secret war" on these cameras — whether that means people physically disabling units or just a flood of complaints about police misuse — doesn't happen in a vacuum. It happens when people feel surveilled without consent, without oversight, and without a clear way to opt out.
What's notable here isn't that some people are angry enough to vandalize hardware. It's that hundreds of misuse reports exist at all for a system sold as a simple crime-fighting tool. Once a network of cameras is logging every plate that passes, regardless of suspicion, it becomes a dataset that's only as trustworthy as the department running it — and as we've reported, that trust is frequently misplaced. Credit to NewsNation for pushing this story into the mainstream; it's the kind of coverage that normally stays confined to local meetings and court filings.
If you want to know whether this fight has already arrived in your neighborhood, check our camera map to see documented ALPR locations near you, and visit our take-action page for concrete steps to push back through public records requests, city council meetings, and local organizing.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of NewsNation, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.