Documented Incident
Opinion Column Argues ALPR Backlash Should Extend Beyond Flock to Whole Surveillance Industry
First reported: August 12, 2026 · 2 sources
An August 12, 2026 OtherWords commentary by Farrah Hassen argues that community campaigns against Flock Safety cameras, while significant, address only one vendor in a broader mass-surveillance market. The piece cites reported incidents including a Texas deputy's search of 83,000 Flock cameras to locate a woman who allegedly had an abortion, documented by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and a Roseville, California police analysis finding 71 percent of Flock alerts incorrectly flagged vehicles. Hassen contends that cities canceling Flock contracts can simply switch to competitors such as Axon, Motorola Solutions, or Genetec, and calls for regulation of the surveillance industry and the agencies that buy its data.
The column frames a question facing local officials weighing ALPR contracts: whether vendor-specific cancellations achieve meaningful privacy protection, or whether durable limits require policy governing data retention, sharing, and warrant requirements regardless of which company supplies the cameras.
Key facts
- Opinion piece by Farrah Hassen published by OtherWords on August 12, 2026.
- Cites a Roseville, California police department analysis finding 71 percent of Flock alerts to that department wrongly flagged vehicles as stolen or felony-linked.
- References EFF-obtained court records showing Texas deputies searched 83,000 Flock cameras nationwide to track a woman who allegedly had an abortion.
- States that DeFlock, an open-source mapping project, has identified over 128,000 ALPRs in the U.S., and that at least 100 cities have rejected ALPRs.
- Notes Los Angeles recently suspended its use of Flock cameras amid questions over data control and sharing, including reported sharing with ICE.
Sources
This summary was written from the published reporting below and links to it; BlockFlockNow does not reproduce article text.
- The Fight Against Flock Cameras Is Just the Beginning (otherwords.org, August 12, 2026)
- Op-Ed: The Fight Against Flock Cameras Is Just the Beginning (The Gilmer Mirror, August 12, 2026)
About this record
BlockFlockNow documents reported incidents involving Flock Safety cameras and automated license plate readers: council votes, contract decisions, misuse by authorized users, lawsuits, audits, and community response. Every record is reviewed by a person before publication. New to the topic? Start with What is Flock?, find meetings near you, or learn how to request your town's camera records.
Updated August 17, 2026. Corrections: blockflock@bytebunny.io. See all documented incidents or search the full article archive.