Garner's Flock Safety System Solves Crimes Within First Weeks
The short version: Flock's own promotional clip touts quick 'wins' in Garner, NC, but a vendor-made highlight reel isn't proof that blanket ALPR surveillance makes anyone safer.
Our Take
Notice who's talking here: this isn't an independent WRAL investigation, it's a video produced by Flock Safety itself, repackaged for local news. When the company selling the cameras is also the one narrating their success story, you should read every claim about 'solving crimes within weeks' as marketing copy, not an audit. There's no mention of how many plates were scanned to get those results, how long the data sat in a database, or how many innocent drivers got swept up along the way.
This is the standard playbook: a town quietly approves a Flock contract, a feel-good clip airs on local TV, and suddenly every other city council in the state is told 'look, it works.' What's missing is the boring but essential stuff — audit logs, retention limits, who outside the police department can query the system, and whether any of this reduced crime rates or just generated a few photogenic anecdotes. Garner residents deserve that data, not a sales reel.
If you want to see whether Garner, or your own town, already has these cameras watching the roads, check our camera map. And if you'd rather your city council hear from residents instead of just vendor pitches, our take-action page has the tools to push back.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of Flock, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.