Flocks Resistance ,Begins fallback
Nearly 100 U.S. cities have rejected Flock cameras.
Flock Safety operates automated license plate readers that photograph vehicles as they pass and record details such as license plates, locations, and times. When cameras in different areas share data, police can potentially reconstruct a vehicle’s travel history.
A growing number of communities are now pushing back against the technology.
According to the anti-surveillance group DeFlock, 95 jurisdictions have rejected proposed license plate reader systems. Another 47 have canceled existing contracts, and 22 have deactivated cameras that were already installed.
In California, the city of El Cerrito switched off its Flock cameras in June after local leaders expressed concerns about privacy and the possibility that the collected data could later be accessed by the federal government.
Appleton, Wisconsin, also discontinued the system after officials concluded that issues with Flock’s underlying network had undermined their trust.
Additional communities in New York, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, and Washington have either canceled contracts or halted planned deployments in response to public opposition.
Flock cameras continue to be widely used by law enforcement agencies. Supporters maintain that the technology helps locate stolen vehicles, identify suspects, and solve crimes more efficiently.
Critics contend that the same systems can generate a searchable record of ordinary people’s movements, even when those individuals are not under suspicion of any crime.
DeFlock reports that more than 122,000 license plate reader cameras have already been mapped across the United States.
While Flock’s network keeps expanding, resistance is expanding as well, as more communities question who should have the ability to track where Americans travel.