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Flock Cameras Can Track Every Car in America. Police Love Them. Citizens Don’t.
The New York Times • • nation
Key Points:
- Flock Safety, an Atlanta-based company, has installed 120,000 license plate reader cameras across the U.S., excluding Alaska, enabling law enforcement to track vehicles quickly and monitor their movements.
- These cameras are used by 7,000 law enforcement agencies, representing 40 percent of all departments in the country.
- A cellphone tower repairman named Philip uses an app called DeFlock to map and share locations of such surveillance devices, aiming to educate the public and push back against widespread surveillance.
- DeFlock encourages transparency and public awareness about mass surveillance, though Flock Safety's CEO has criticized the app, calling it "terroristic."
- The proliferation of these cameras raises concerns about privacy as they capture everyday moments of ordinary people without their explicit consent.
