Welcome to The Beacon, part of the NoFluff Collection.

Let’s talk about a company called Flock Safety, a company selling a promise: install cameras, feed them to an algorithm, and we’ll all live in a crime-free America in ten years.

Because the system they build isn't just cameras. It’s a surveillance mesh. Maybe with audio. Maybe with video. Maybe just plate-reads. Depends on the contract. Depends on the version. Depends on who’s setting it up.

They expect to eliminate crime by observing the movements of everyone.

What an idiotic premise, that observation, by itself, will eliminate anything.

Flock sells the idea of instant safety. But behind the pitch is an uncertainty they don’t emphasize.

Some of their devices are strictly ALPR, Automated License Plate Readers. Still images. Plate number. Timestamp. Location. That’s the safety pitch most municipalities purchase.

But, reporting in 2025 revealed that Flock also uses gig-workers overseas to annotate video and audio from some cameras: license plates, car details, even identifying people by clothing, and tagging audio cues like “gunshot,” “screaming,” or “car wreck.”

Which raises a simple question:

If you can’t know for sure whether the camera is “plate-only” or “full surveillance,” who are you to assume otherwise?

When information is mixed, the safe bet, from a vigilance standpoint, is to assume every camera is recording audio, video, everything.

Because if you assume every Flock camera is “full service”, audio + video + ALPR, every public street, every neighborhood, every driveway becomes a sensor node in a giant, private database.

If you decide that you want a KitKat at 11 PM and the only place open is the corner convenience store, You walk down your street and you could be caught by multiple cameras before you even get to the store.

All of the sudden, an illicit activity was discovered in the same area, and there you are. Suspicious simply because you couldn’t fight off a craving for chocolate.

Imagine saying something like “I’m going to tear into you when I get my hands on you,” obviously meaning the luscious wafers, but recorded without your knowledge.

This isn’t a traffic camera watching speed, it’s a memory system watching, and possibly listening to you.

And when that system is owned by a private company, funded by venture capital, with no public-records transparency, it means your movements, every car, every footstep, become data that belongs not to you, but to them.

Ok, what can you do? Educate yourself.

I did not realize how pervasive these cameras had become. I live in a very rural area and there are 7 within a couple of miles of my house.

If you want to see where these cameras might be, or just help track them, check it out at Deflock.me.

It’s a crowd-sourced map and information hub for public reports of Flock camera locations across the U.S.

Use it. Document what you see. Share it. Keep the information public, not private.

Because the only antidote to mass surveillance… is transparency and awareness.

Remember, always assume you are being recorded, either by some TikToker obsessed with likes, or your local government keeping you “safe.”

I don’t like fear-mongering. I like clarity. The clarity here: when a private company offers you “safety,” but has the infrastructure, incentives, and documented examples of full surveillance, you don’t get to pick and choose.

You assume the worst.

You act accordingly.

One final point I have, what happens when they get bought by a different company? What happens to this massive amount of data then?

You treat every camera as if you might be recorded. Because at scale, that’s the smart bet.

How much are we willing to give up for security?

I am afraid many are satisfied to give up everything.

Thank you for listening to The Beacon presented by the NoFluff Collection.

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