flock camera awareness
Resources
Everything below is somebody else's work. None of it is mine, and none of it is affiliated with this site. Go check it yourself - that's the whole point.
start here
Look up your own address before you read anyone's argument, including mine.
These sites are my sources, and may contain information not listed here. They also contain maps, up to date statistics, and further links to valuable sites. They are as important as this site, and a large part of what inspired it
find cameras near you
- maps.deflock.org The big one. Community-reported ALPR locations, searchable by address, worldwide. Built on OpenStreetMap data, so reports flow back into the commons rather than into a private database.
- deflock.org The project behind the map - including how to report a camera you've spotted. Flock sent them a cease-and-desist over the name. They refused, with the EFF representing them.
- Atlas of Surveillance - EFF What surveillance technology your local police department has bought: ALPRs, drones, face recognition, gunshot detection. Search by agency or by county.
- OpenStreetMap Community-tagged surveillance cameras worldwide. The underlying data layer that several of these maps are built from.
- dontgetflocked.com Route-based tool - checks a drive for cameras along the way rather than just around a fixed address.
legal & advocacy
- EFF - Automated License Plate Readers The most consistent reporting on this subject anywhere. Public records investigations, litigation, and the audit-log analysis that surfaced the protest, immigration, and abortion-related searches cited across this site.
- ACLU - License Plate Reader Surveillance Legal analysis, state-level policy tracking, and affiliate offices that will actually take a local case.
- EPIC - License Plate Readers Research, regulatory comments, and legislative filings.
- NCSL - State ALPR Legislation Tracker What laws, if any, cover ALPR use in your state. Start here before you email a representative, so you know what you're asking for.
- Institute for Justice Litigating Fourth Amendment challenges to ALPR networks, including the Norfolk, Virginia suit over city-wide camera coverage.
- Independent Institute The Piedmont sixteen-year cost-and-outcome study and ongoing skeptical analysis of ALPR efficacy claims.
reporting worth reading
- 404 Media Broke the abortion-related plate search, the Nova people-search product, and the open camera feeds. Reader-funded, journalist-owned.
- GainSec The security research: 67 exposed feeds, 51 findings, 22 CVEs. Read the white paper rather than anyone's summary of it, including mine.
- Benn Jordan - teardown What's actually inside the box on the pole, and what it does. If you only have forty minutes, spend them here.
other people making the same argument
Independent projects, unaffiliated with this one and with each other. Different emphases, different tempers. Cross-check us.
- stopalprs.com Fight for the Future's campaign. Heavier on the research citations and the organizing - petitions, campaign toolkits, the misread-rate and hit-rate data.
- antiflock.org Information plus its own OpenStreetMap-based camera map.
- stopflock.com Case studies and statistics, assembled as a running dossier.
- end-mass-surveilance.net Broader anti-surveillance project - not Flock-specific.
what you can actually do
- File a public records request. Ask your police department how many Flock cameras they operate, who is permitted to query the data, how long it's retained, which outside agencies they share with, and how many searches were run last year - and for what stated reasons. In Washington, a court has already ruled this data is a public record. The reason fields are where the abuses turn up.
- Read your own city's audit log. If you get one, the useful column is "reason." Vague, blank, or joke entries mean the oversight is theatre.
- Talk to your HOA. Ask to see the data-sharing agreement. Ask whether police, federal agencies, or out-of-state departments can query footage your dues paid for. Most boards have never read the contract they signed.
- Show up to a council meeting. Austin, Denver, Evanston, Eugene, Cambridge, Flagstaff and Santa Cruz all dropped or refused Flock contracts after residents turned up. Not one of those was won by a website.
- Contact your representatives - 5 Calls will find them and give you a script. Ask for warrant requirements, hard retention limits, public audit logs, and a ban on sharing with federal agencies.
- Report cameras you spot to deflock.org. The map only works because people photograph poles.
- Send someone this page. Most people have still never heard of Flock Safety. That's the company's single greatest asset.