This Is Why Flock Cameras Are Dangerous

Our Take

The numbers in this video from Almost Making It are the whole argument in miniature: 6,200 searches, 441 criminal charges, and one deputy who allegedly turned a network built to find stolen cars into a personal tracking tool. Flock Safety's pitch has always been that every search is logged and reviewable, as if the existence of a log file is the same thing as accountability. This case suggests otherwise — the data only gets scrutinized after someone blows the whistle or a victim notices, not because the system polices itself in real time.

That's the uncomfortable truth about ALPR networks: they're built on trust in the people who get the login credentials, and law enforcement agencies have shown repeatedly that they don't audit their own access logs until forced to. A camera doesn't know the difference between a legitimate investigation and a deputy looking up an ex, a neighbor, or anyone else they take a personal interest in. The hardware doesn't discriminate, but the humans running queries against it absolutely do, and when oversight is an afterthought, abuse isn't a hypothetical — it's a matter of when, not if.

Credit to Almost Making It for digging into a case most local news will never follow past the first headline. If you want to see how dense this surveillance net is in your own area, check our camera map, and if you're ready to push back against unchecked ALPR deployment in your community, our take-action resources are a good place to start.