07/25/2026
We’ve seen a lot of back and fourth about the use of Flock Cameras by Law Enforcement. Here’s the facts and not a bunch of made up crap by liberals who don’t like the police:
I understand why some people are concerned about privacy. Healthy skepticism of government and technology is important, and everyone should ask questions. That said, there are also a lot of misconceptions about what Flock Safety cameras actually do.
First, we are not advocating for a surveillance state, and we’re certainly not a group of communists. We believe strongly in individual rights, constitutional protections, and law enforcement operating within the law. Supporting technology that helps solve serious crimes is not the same as supporting government overreach.
Flock cameras do not continuously record people’s every move or identify who is driving a vehicle. They are automated license plate reader (ALPR) cameras that capture a still image of a passing vehicle, its license plate, and visible characteristics such as the make, model, color, and any unique features. The cameras are designed to alert law enforcement only when a vehicle is associated with a reported crime, a stolen vehicle, a missing or endangered person, or another legitimate law enforcement purpose.
The results speak for themselves.
• Flock Safety cameras have assisted law enforcement agencies across the United States in recovering tens of thousands of stolen vehicles worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
• They have helped locate missing children, endangered adults, and individuals suffering from dementia far more quickly than traditional investigative methods.
• They have provided critical investigative leads in homicide investigations, Amber Alerts, armed robberies, kidnappings, burglaries, hit-and-run crashes, and serial theft cases where there otherwise may have been little or no evidence.
• Agencies throughout the country have publicly credited Flock camera data with identifying suspects in murders within hours instead of weeks by tracking suspect vehicles entering and leaving crime scenes.
It’s important to understand that these cameras don’t randomly monitor law-abiding citizens. If you aren’t connected to a crime or legitimate criminal investigation, nobody is sitting there watching where you go. Investigators generally search historical data only when investigating a specific incident, and access is logged and audited.
Could the technology be abused? Any technology can be abused if proper policies and oversight aren’t in place. That’s why transparency, retention limits, auditing, warrants where required, and accountability matter. We should absolutely hold agencies responsible for using these systems appropriately. Flock units have helped solve more crimes than DNA has. Their mere presence act as a deterrent for criminal activities.
But dismissing a tool simply because it involves technology ignores the very real lives it has helped save and the violent offenders it has helped remove from our communities.
At the end of the day, we support tools that help find kidnapped children, recover stolen vehicles, solve murders, identify hit-and-run drivers, and arrest violent criminals, provided they are used lawfully, transparently, and with proper oversight. Public safety and civil liberties are not mutually exclusive. We can, and should, have both.
