Who's watching? Ohio group wants city to explain its network of Flock cameras
The short version: A Hamilton, Ohio group is pushing police to explain how their Flock ALPR network is used, and that kind of public pressure is exactly how transparency happens.
Our Take
Credit to Local 12 for covering this, because the pattern in Hamilton is one we see over and over: a police department quietly rolls out a network of license plate readers, and it's not until residents start asking basic questions — how many cameras, who has access, how long is data kept, is it shared with ICE or other agencies — that any accountability shows up. The fact that a local group had to organize and demand answers says a lot about how these systems get deployed in the first place: with minimal public input and even less ongoing oversight.
This isn't a fringe concern. Flock's own marketing leans on vague promises about solving crime, but the actual audit trails, data-sharing agreements, and retention policies are often buried or nonexistent until someone forces the issue. Hamilton residents deserve a real public accounting, not a PR statement, and that pressure needs to keep coming from city council meetings, open records requests, and neighbors comparing notes about what they're actually seeing bolted to utility poles.
If you're in Hamilton or anywhere else wondering just how much of your daily driving is already logged, check our camera map to see what's nearby, and visit our take-action page for tools to push your own city for the same answers Hamilton is finally being asked to give.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of LOCAL 12, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.