In a year rife with backlash to big tech, data centers, and AI, one company still manages to stand out: Flock Safety. Over the past decade, Flock has been building out a massive network of surveillance cameras across the nation. The images those cameras record are uploaded to a central database, and can be accessed by law enforcement and federal authorities.
Abuse of the system has been rampant. Police have used Flock’s Automatic License Plate Readers (ALPRs) to stalk exes and to track women seeking abortions across state lines. ICE has accessed Flock data to assist in crackdown on immigrants. Innocent people have been wrongfully imprisoned after being flagged by the system.
So, ordinary citizens are fighting back. They’re packing city council meetings, organizing protests, and putting pressure on local officials to cancel Flock contracts. Flock’s foes are getting creative, going viral [roll clips Darth Vader & Dr Doom], and winning hearts and minds.
[Introduction co-written with Ryan Hodes.]
Some are taking matters into their own hands: In city after city, Flock cameras are turning up smashed. Social media tutorials purport to show how to destroy the cameras while avoiding detection. Other social media posts have declared Halloween “DeFlock America,” encouraging people to pursue extralegal methods of Flock destruction.
As a result of all the public backlash, local governments have been cancelling Flock contracts left and right. The vast majority of the movement is peaceful, civil, and above board. At its heart is DeFlock, a volunteer-run advocacy group that provides resources and information about the surveillance company and its camera network. It hosts a map of the 140,000 ALPRs installed across the United States and recently held a National Week of Action.
With the anti-Flock movement growing, and more people looking into how to get Flock out of their communities, I sat down with Ed, an organizer with DeFlock, to explain, step by step, how you can start a movement to get the surveillance tech out of your town, too. It was a fascinating and illuminating conversation, full of practical information and advice for anyone looking to get informed about—or involved in—the burgeoning movement to defang the surveillance state. I was left with even more respect for the DeFlock organizers, who are doing their work entirely as volunteers, with no outside funding sources. I hope you enjoy the chat as much as I did.
Here’s a fun media hit: I’m part of Ros Atkin’s new BBC series, “The Value Crisis”, which examines how AI does or does not change what we value as humans. I haven’t listened to the whole thing yet, but there are a lot of great voices in there, and I’m looking forward to checking it out. The trailer is here.
I was planning on writing a bit more about the AI extinction discourse—now that we’re a week or so in and certain motivations and machinations have become clearer—but got tripped up with some travel and personal obligations, and I wanted to make sure to get the Flock piece out, as it felt useful and timely. I will aim to do that in the next few days, if there’s still interest.
SHOW NOTES
Check out DeFlock.org here.
Producer Ryan’s Newsletter:
Articles Mentioned in this Episode
404 Media has the hands-down best coverage of Flock and ALPRs anywhere. Chances are, if I’m referencing Flock in general, I’m referencing their stellar reporting on the topic.
I’ve done some writing on the topic myself, too:
Across the US, people are dismantling and destroying Flock surveillance cameras
Silicon Valley is tightening its ties with Trumpworld, the surveillance state is rapidly expanding, and big tech’s AI data center buildout is booming. Civilians are pushing back.
More links referenced:
https://atlpresscollective.com/2026/07/28/flock-cameras-atlanta-clearance-rates/
https://www.commondreams.org/news/police-abusing-flock-cameras
https://cybernews.com/privacy/de-flock-america-halloween-flock-surveillance-cameras/
https://www.404media.co/flock-taught-cops-how-to-surveil-no-kings-protesters/
https://deflocktheusa.com/cancellations/
Alright, that’s it for today. Thanks as always for reading, and more soon. Hammers up.
