You Can't Drive Without Flock Anymore.

Our Take

Creator Loyal Moses lays out a distinction that gets lost in a lot of privacy chatter: the courts reining in geofence warrants and warrantless cell-site tracking were about *your* device and *your* data trail. Flock Safety's camera network is a different animal entirely — it's not pulling data off your phone, it's a government-contracted grid of cameras bolted to poles that photographs every car that passes, whether you're a suspect in anything or not. Winning a Fourth Amendment case about phone location data doesn't put a dent in that.

That gap is exactly why this fight isn't over just because a judge slapped down one surveillance method. Flock and Axon have built a business model around local police departments signing subscription contracts for always-on plate readers, and courts have been slow to treat networked camera surveillance with the same scrutiny as digital searches. The result is a patchwork where your car's movements get logged nationwide even as your phone's location data gets a bit more protection. That's not a win, that's a shell game.

If you want to see how far this grid already reaches in your own neighborhood, check our camera map, and if you're ready to push back on a local contract, our take-action page has the tools to start.