Own the narrative before someone else does
In three weeks, twenty agencies in fifteen states talked about "misinformation" and "accountability", following Flock's playbook. Let's compare the logs.
By H.C. van Pelt2026-07-31
Investigations
Long-form reporting on how Flock cameras are used and misused.
40 posts
This Deal Is Getting Worse All the Time: Flock's 911 Terms Now Live on Axon's Website
Flock's 911 product binds police agencies to terms hosted on prepared911.com and assigns ownership of your 911 calls to its competitor, Axon.
By H.C. van Pelt2026-07-29
Cameras don't track people, Flock does
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.
By H.C. van Pelt2026-07-26
The Monster Did It: The Five Flavors of Flock Fatalism
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.
By H.C. van Pelt2026-07-13
Cop Arrested for Flock-Stalking Exposes Another Oversight Failure
A McHenry County, IL, cop was arrested for "official misconduct" for using Flock to stalk people. The behavior went unnoticed for months.
By H.C. van Pelt2026-06-19
The Data-Sharing Shell Game: San Francisco Figured it Out
San Francisco figures out Flock has been improperly disseminating data for years. SFPD cracked the case all by themselves — it had nothing to do with a high school newspaper spelling it out for them a few weeks ago.
By H.C. van Pelt2026-06-18
Iowa DPS: Compliance Depends on Who's Asking
DPS awarded a federal grant on a certification of compliance that was never in place. When a complaint exposed the gap, DPS' grant bureau chief quietly handed the grant recipient the missing paperwork, while declaring the complaint "unfounded."
By H.C. van Pelt2026-06-11
Never For General Patrol: Flock's Drone Proposition
Flock's November 2024 drone demo showed exactly what its 2026 product page denies. The Supreme Court already ruled on this in 2001.
By H.C. van Pelt2026-05-11
We Have to Treat Everyone
In this webinar, a Flock sales lead tells hospital customers to add fired and laid-off healthcare workers to the watchlist.
By H.C. van Pelt2026-05-02
Welcome to Dunwoody's Virtual Human Zoo
Flock claimed explicit permission to view cameras where children play. Dunwoody says no such permission exists.
By Jason Hunyar2026-05-01
The Cost of Being Alive: Flock CEO Langley at TED2026
Flock's CEO told a $12,500-a-seat TED audience that in South Africa, "crime is simply the cost of being alive." His own company is helping keep it that way.
By H.C. van Pelt2026-04-18
Flock Goes Global: How a $7.5 Billion Surveillance Company Found Its International Partner in South Africa's Most Controversial Camera Network
Vumacam sells Flock surveillance in South Africa. Its founder was criminally investigated for operating unlicensed cameras. Its cameras have been called digital apartheid. It all tracks.
By H.C. van Pelt2026-04-05
"Flock Wing License(s) Included": How Speed Cameras Became Surveillance Cameras
Procurement records reveal how Flock Safety sneaks its cameras into school zones with zero data governance provisions in the contract.
By H.C. van Pelt2026-03-27
The Platform: Flock Safety Is Running on Promises, Not Policy
Flock Safety's three campaign promises — local control, no federal access, no employee access — are contradicted by Dunwoody PD audit logs, an FBI criminal complaint, and a Flock training video recorded on a live police account.
By H.C. van Pelt2026-03-26
Who Is Flock Intelligence?
An unknown Flock-affiliated entity searched Dunwoody GA PD's camera networks 606 times in five months using AI-powered queries — many targeting political expression. Four other Flock-internal organizations also appear in the logs.
By H.C. van Pelt2026-03-23
You Will Own Nothing: How Flock Safety Keeps Cities From Their Own Surveillance Data
Flock customers technically 'own' their footage — but can't access high-resolution originals, get images with unreliable timestamps and scrubbed metadata, and must submit formal requests through Flock's own evidence platform just to obtain their own records.
By H.C. van Pelt2026-03-22
Lorem Ipsum Is the Most Honest Thing on Flock's Trust Center
Flock launched a half-finished Trust Center full of placeholder text and unvetted claims — an unintentional demonstration of the access control failures it was built to deny.
By H.C. van Pelt2026-03-16
Flock Releases Marketing Video, Leaks CJI and Own Address
Flock's two-minute cinematic masterpiece appears to show real license plates with real hotlist entries broadcast on screen — and the address of an unidentified industrial building surrounded by Flock hardware.
By H.C. van Pelt2026-03-05
Iowa's ALPR Bill Would Make Des Moines the License Plate Data Capital of America
An amendment strips warrant requirements and hands insurance companies access to a national surveillance database — with Iowa as the legal gateway.
By H.C. van Pelt2026-03-03
Flock promises to implement logging feature it claimed existed
Flock Safety's blog post about 'enhanced guardrails' is a confession dressed as a product announcement. The company admits it wasn't logging sharing configuration changes — a CJIS Security Policy violation — while its guardrails still leave tribal nations and private universities outside SB 34's reach.
By H.C. van Pelt2026-03-02
Flock's Best Argument: Cops Can't Stop Being Racist Without Us
A surveillance company and a surveillance-industry lobbyist walk onto a livestream.
By H.C. van Pelt2026-02-27
Eighteen Years of Nightly Lineups
Iowa's DOT has run nightly facial recognition scans on millions of driver's license photos for eighteen years. In the past four, the scans have led to 14 criminal charges and zero recorded convictions.
By H.C. van Pelt2026-02-23
The Many Faces of Flock Permits (Part II)
Iowa has highway safety standards. Kind of.
By H.C. van Pelt2026-02-06
Flock's New Pitch: Surveillance or Serial Killers
A TV ad, a recycled op-ed, and the quiet admission that guardrails don't actually work.
By H.C. van Pelt2026-01-09
Flock's Censorship Gambit Fails at Cloudflare (Part V)
After three weeks of review, Cloudflare rejects Cyble's baseless takedown complaint—citing Flock's own admission that the data came from public records.
By H.C. van Pelt2026-01-08
Has Flock Been Hacked? What Their Security Blog Post Doesn't Say
Flock claims it has "never been hacked." A fact-check of their January 2026 blog post reveals semantic games, undisclosed offshore contractors, and CJIS compliance failures.
By H.C. van Pelt2026-01-06
The 250,000+ Camera "City-Wide" Network
A bug in Flock's system swept 257,806 cameras into an "ICE detainer" search. Flock claims no data was accessed—but California, Illinois, and Virginia prohibit such searches regardless.
By H.C. van Pelt2026-01-04
Flock and Cyble: Aligned Values (Part IV)
Y Combinator funds both surveillance infrastructure and the machinery to silence its critics.
By H.C. van Pelt2025-12-31
Flock and Cyble Inc. Pile on the Allegations with no Evidence in Sight (Part III)
The third installment in this series on when a government contractor pays a company for "Takedown Services" to prevent transparency in government
By H.C. van Pelt2025-12-29
The "Public Roads" Myth: Why Mass Surveillance Violates the Fourth Amendment
The Fourth Amendment protects people, not places.
By H.C. van Pelt2025-12-18
Flock and Cyble Inc. Continue to File False Notices
When a government contractor pays a company for "Takedown Services" to prevent transparency in government (Part II)
By H.C. van Pelt2025-12-17
Flock Records Cops, Sends Recordings to Denmark
Evidence reveals Flock records police sessions and transmits raw data to foreign vendors, bypassing security controls. A complaint to Iowa DPS details active security incidents, the use of unvetted foreign contractors, and a software feature allowing users to unilaterally silently suppress NCIC alerts organization-wide.
By H.C. van Pelt2025-12-17
Flock and Cyble Inc. Weaponize "Cybercrime" Takedowns to Silence Critics
When a government contractor pays a company for "Takedown Services" to prevent transparency in government
By H.C. van Pelt2025-12-16
Vector State: License Plates for Pedestrians
Flock's cameras have face detection triggers and use ReID technology to track people by appearance—treating humans like license plates.
By H.C. van Pelt2025-12-01
Federal Insecurity: How Flock Lies to the Feds
Flock's security chief certified FBI compliance despite knowing their devices fail basic security requirements. Either they handle sensitive data illegally, or they lied.
By H.C. van Pelt2025-11-28
Flock Ships American Surveillance Footage to Offshore Contractors
Contractors in the Philippines are labeling faces and tracking vehicles through 80,000+ Flock cameras. Local police installed them; Flock ships the data overseas.
By H.C. van Pelt2025-11-23
The Data-Sharing Shell Game: Flock, RISS, and the Federal Surveillance Backdoor
Despite Illinois' TRUST Act ban on immigration data sharing, ICE maintains backdoor access to Flock's database through RISS and local agencies.
By H.C. van Pelt2025-11-11
Too Much, Too Late: A Digital Dragnet for a Homicide
How police used Flock's digital dragnet to investigate a homicide months after critical evidence was lost due to negligence.
By H.C. van Pelt2025-11-08
157 Pages of Evidence, 200 Jurisdictions, Zero Oversight
A 157-page murder investigation file with informant details leaked to 200 agencies via Flock's uncontrolled audit log system.
By H.C. van Pelt2025-11-08
The Many Faces of Flock Permits
Iowa DOT has a permitting process for roadside equipment. Kind of.
By H.C. van Pelt2025-11-04