They pushed back on Flock AI surveillance. Now their votes are being overturned.
The short version: More Perfect Union's Kasia Burbank exposes how Cleveland officials reversed a commission vote against renewing Flock's contract, showing surveillance expansion often ignores public input.
Our Take
Credit to Kasia Burbank and the More Perfect Union team for documenting what happens when a community actually tries to say no to Flock. Cleveland's own commission voted against renewing the ALPR contract, and that decision got quietly overturned with barely an explanation offered to the people it affects. Flock's leadership loves to talk about respecting democracy, but this is the opposite: a company's revenue stream apparently mattering more than a local vote.
This pattern isn't unique to Cleveland. Flock has embedded itself in more than 5,000 communities and now claims over 20 billion license plate scans a month, an appetite for data that keeps growing whether or not residents want it. When elected bodies push back and get overruled anyway, it's a signal that the contracts and lobbying relationships behind these systems are built to outlast public opposition, not answer to it.
If your town is fighting the same battle, or you just want to see how far this surveillance net already reaches, check our camera map and use our take-action resources to make your voice harder to override.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of More Perfect Union, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.