Poem for the National Week of Action Against ALPR recited at Palo Alto City Council
The short version: A Palo Alto resident turned public comment into protest poetry, linking ALPR surveillance to broader fears about unchecked government overreach.
Our Take
Matt Schlegel did something we don't see enough of at city council meetings: he showed up and made his three minutes count. Instead of reciting talking points, he read a poem tying the quiet creep of automated license plate readers to bigger questions about who local government is actually protecting. It's a reminder that the fight against ALPR isn't just a wonky policy debate — for a lot of residents, it's visceral, personal, and tangled up with a broader loss of trust in institutions.
Palo Alto is one of hundreds of cities across the country that have quietly wired their streets with Flock Safety cameras, logging every plate that passes whether or not anyone's suspected of anything. The National Week of Action Against ALPR that Schlegel references is exactly the kind of grassroots pushback this moment needs — ordinary people showing up at city hall, at rallies, and in public comment to say that dragnet surveillance shouldn't be the default setting for American streets.
Credit to Schlegel for turning a council meeting into a moment of public art and public pressure. If you want to see whether cameras like these are already watching your commute, check our camera map, and if you're ready to push back in your own city, our take-action page has the tools to get started.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of Matt Schlegel, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.