More than three out of four Flock agencies report running queries for other departments at least monthly, bypassing oversight and preventing adequate logging. One in five do so daily.
The Pleasant Hill, IA, department blamed 'misinformation' after a Flock camera was destroyed. Flock makes the same claim. We tried to verify, but found mysterious radar modules and car-tracking buttons instead.
The company faces severe backlash and more and more cameras are being cut down and destroyed. Two cameras in Georgia caught fire; it's being investigated as arson, but will that be enough?
After an officer abused two police databases to stalk women, Costa Mesa, California, heard nearly five hours of resident opposition — cutting speakers' time partway through — before voting 6-1 to keep the system.
Two journalists were stopped over a partial plate in an NCIC hotlist. Flock calls it a feature; the NCIC operating manual calls it a violation.
Flock credits its AI-powered "Audit Assistance" tool for a wave of officer arrests — press releases included. Exposing abuse after the fact isn't a fix; it's what keeps the surveillance sellable.
Cleveland's Flock contract extension passed 9-6 — one vote short of emergency effect, giving Clevelanders 30 days to force a referendum.
Flock's core rhetorical product isn't safety — it's fatalism. Every argument the company makes for its products reduces to "this was always going to happen, so the only question is configuration." Discourse in Cleveland is exposing why that argument doesn't hold.
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