The Surveillance Machine is Already Here
We need to talk about the tech creeping into our streets before it’s too late. Flock Safety has built a massive surveillance network that is already scanning our cars, and the stakes are incredibly high for regular folks.
Backed by Silicon Valley money, this company has turned license plate reading into a billion-dollar industry. They claim to have over 120,000 cameras scanning roads in more than 6,000 communities right now.
These devices watch traffic. They also build a database of 20 billion plate scans every single month. That is a level of intrusion that feels like a dystopian nightmare for anyone who values their freedom.
The Numbers Behind the Fear
The facts here are staggering and they come straight from the reporting on Flock’s operations. The company reported last year that it surpassed $300 million in annual revenue.
Their system creates “hot lists” that alert officers the second a target car is spotted. But the real danger lies in their “vehicle fingerprint” feature, which lets police search for any white minivan with bumper stickers without even knowing the plate number.
An audit showed that a single query can pull data from 83,345 cameras across nearly the entire country. The San Jose PD, alongside other California agencies, accessed their database 3,965,519 times from June 5, 2024, through June 17, 2025.
Over 3,900 agencies recorded more than 12 million searches during the period spanning December 2024 to October 2025. The reporting highlights searches for “and racial slurs, often without mentioning any suspected crime. Audit logs revealed searches including” specific slurs.
One example cited the “Grand Prairie Police Department in Texas searched the slur six times while using Flock’s” system. Another log showed officers searching for “had an abortion, search for female.” These aren’t glitches; they are features of a system with minimal oversight.
This is not a distant problem for California or Texas; it is coming to New York City. We love our police, but we cannot let them use tools that target women, immigrants, and vulnerable communities without accountability.
The business model relies on a nationwide network where safety measures are left to the discretion of local departments. Too many organizations did not turn them on, leaving the door wide open for abuse.
We also need to talk about the “conductive distraction and de-escalation devices” known as shock gloves. When you combine invasive tracking with weapons designed to stun, you create a recipe for overreach.
