Flock Safety
The short version: UFD Garage's new track turns Flock Safety's sprawling ALPR network into blunt social commentary, spotlighting the sheer scale of plate surveillance.
Our Take
UFD Garage isn't a policy shop or a civil liberties nonprofit — it's a music channel, and that's exactly why this one lands. When artists start writing bars about license plate readers, you know the topic has broken out of wonk circles and into everyday awareness. Credit to writer Gontse Makitla and editor Kgosietsile Makitla for putting a number most Americans have never heard — 120,000-plus cameras — into a format that actually spreads.
That figure is the whole story. Flock Safety didn't ask for permission to build what is effectively a national vehicle-tracking grid; it sold it city by city, HOA by HOA, until the dots on the map merged into a dragnet. No warrant, no court order, just a camera logging your plate, your location, and your timestamp every time you drive past one — then holding onto that data and sharing it well beyond the agency that installed it.
Songs like this matter because they reach people who'll never read a city council agenda but will absolutely notice when the lyrics hit close to home. If this track has you wondering how many of these cameras are near you, check our map to find out, and if you want to push back on a system that was built without public input, our take-action page is the place to start.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of UFD Garage, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.