flock cameras are cool 🤓#Pittsburgh #LibertyTunnel #PittsburghPA #FlockCameras #ThreeRiversRiding
The short version: A Pittsburgh rider's offhand clip of Flock cameras at the Liberty Tunnel shows how casually these ALPR systems are becoming part of the urban backdrop.
Our Take
Three Rivers Riding's quick, almost tongue-in-cheek clip of Flock Safety cameras posted up at the Liberty Tunnel is a small moment, but it says a lot. Whether the "cool" in the title is sincere or sarcastic, the footage captures exactly how license plate readers get absorbed into everyday scenery — just another fixture on the commute, like a traffic light or a speed sign, instead of a permanent record of who drives where, when.
That's the real story behind clips like this: these cameras aren't advertised, debated, or explained to most of the people who pass under them every day. They're installed, they run 24/7, and they quietly build a searchable history of vehicle movements that local agencies and, in many cases, outside law enforcement networks can access. A tunnel chokepoint like Liberty Tunnel is a prime location for this kind of tracking precisely because everyone has to funnel through it — which is also exactly why it deserves more scrutiny, not less.
Credit to Three Rivers Riding for catching it on camera, even if "cool" wasn't quite the editorial angle we'd take. If you want to see whether there's a Flock camera on your own route, check our camera map, and if you'd rather not let this kind of infrastructure go unquestioned in your city, our take-action page has steps for pushing back.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of Three Rivers Riding, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.