EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Flock Safety representative discusses privacy, oversight and data access
The short version: A Flock Safety rep tells a local ABC affiliate the cameras target 'vehicles, not people,' a talking point worth scrutinizing rather than accepting.
Our Take
Credit to WSET ABC 13 for getting a Flock Safety representative on camera, because company talking points deserve public scrutiny, not just press releases. The company's core line — that these cameras capture 'vehicles, not people' — is a tidy bit of messaging, but it dodges the real issue. A license plate is a direct link to a registered owner, and when that plate is logged with a timestamp and GPS location every time it passes a reader, you're not just tracking a car. You're building a movement history of the person who drives it: where they worship, who they visit, what clinic they park outside, what protest they attended.
Local news segments like this one matter because they're often where communities first learn these systems even exist in their town. But 'designed to capture vehicles, not people' is a framing choice, not a technical limitation — the data is just as capable of identifying a person as any other surveillance tool, and it's frequently shared across agencies and states with far less oversight than most residents assume. The real questions are who can query this data, how long it's retained, and whether there's independent audit trail — not just whether the camera lens is pointed at a bumper instead of a face.
If you want to see whether Flock or similar ALPR cameras are already watching your own streets, check our camera map, and if you'd rather not wait for your local council to ask the hard questions, our take-action page has tools to push back now.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of WSET ABC 13, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.