How Benn Jordan Discovered Flock's Cameras Were Left Streaming to the Internet

Our Take

If you needed a fresh reminder that "trust us, it's secure" isn't a security model, this interview delivers it. Benn Jordan, whose independent digging into Flock Safety has become some of the sharpest reporting out there, tells 404 Media's Jason Koebler how he stumbled onto Flock camera feeds left openly streaming to the internet. That's not a hypothetical vulnerability or a theoretical attack surface — that's a nationwide license-plate-tracking network with a door left wide open.

This matters because the entire pitch for ALPR systems rests on the promise that they're locked-down, professionally managed, access-controlled tools used only by vetted law enforcement. Every time an independent researcher — not a company audit, not a government inspector, just a guy with a YouTube channel — finds cameras bleeding data into the open web, that promise looks thinner. These systems already vacuum up the location history of every driver who passes by, law-abiding or not. Add sloppy security to the mix and you've got a surveillance dragnet that's not just invasive by design, it's insecure by accident.

Credit to Benn Jordan and 404 Media for doing the legwork that Flock and the police departments buying its hardware clearly aren't in a hurry to do themselves. If you want to see how far this camera network has spread into your own community, check our map, and if you're ready to push back on it locally, our take-action page has where to start.