From Florida to Washington state, local governments across the country are canceling their contracts with Flock, the company behind the controversial AI-enabled license plate readers, in response to public outcry. But ending the contracts doesn’t necessarily mean the cameras will come down immediately — or that the information they’ve gathered will be deleted anytime soon.
Even as state and local governments decide to rein in their surveillance capabilities, uncertainty remains about what Flock can and will do with data that has already been collected. Each jurisdiction’s contract is different, but many of them let Flock retain data long after it’s been collected. “Let’s say they terminate,” said Saira Hussain, a senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation who has reviewed dozens of municipal Flock contracts. “What happens to the data, and how long is it able to be searched? That question appears to be unresolved.”
Ha, the real result is that the Flock camera is getting swapped out for an Axon version and the surveillance continues. I was tempted to make a bumper sticker that said, "Flock your Camera, and kiss my Axon." But I'd probably get sued for using their trademark names.
The only criticism against surveillance I’ve seen is government can use it for nefarious purposes but realistically thats not gonna be for us. I doubt the state department or whatever gives a shit who we are, 99.99% wont ever be a threat to the government. I honestly dont care whether they have my data or not because what are they going to do with it and I’ve never done anything wrong. And we can put strict boundaries on government surveillance limits instead of advocating for complete ban on surveillance.
its wild to see Reddit be okay with it but I am not surprised.
They just wanna be controversial. You see, if you say right now that surveillance is ok then, if you're lucky, and everyone gets gaslit the other way around, you can say the 3 magic words:
Flock Safety has more than 120,000 cameras set up on roads across the US that scan license plates billions of times every month. Local law-enforcement agencies say they rely on ALPRs to solve crimes. Officers can search this data, even outside their state, to help find stolen vehicles and missing people.
Privacy advocates say Flock has created a dragnet, as these queries don’t require a warrant, and the cameras routinely capture details about cars driven by people who are not suspected of crimes. They also worry about police officers who used the tech to try to stalk their romantic interests, as well as ways this data ends up in the hands of federal immigration enforcement.
Ha, the real result is that the Flock camera is getting swapped out for an Axon version and the surveillance continues. I was tempted to make a bumper sticker that said, "Flock your Camera, and kiss my Axon." But I'd probably get sued for using their trademark names.
The way I understand it, fair use should apply here if its a sticker. Just, every copper everywhere is gonna be pulling you over and probe your axon.
ah i see https://www.404media.co/cities-are-ditching-flock-immediately-replacing-it-with-axon-license-plate-readers/
its wild to see Reddit be okay with it but I am not surprised.
They just wanna be controversial. You see, if you say right now that surveillance is ok then, if you're lucky, and everyone gets gaslit the other way around, you can say the 3 magic words:
"told you so"
and have receipts.
archived link
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/aug/20/flock-cameras-surveillance