ATLANTA—The fight against Flock Safety is getting louder and more sophisticated, even as the company’s AI-enabled cameras continue to spread across America.
Flock has 120,000 cameras in 49 states that capture 20 billion license plates a month—along with dents, bumper stickers and other identifying features.
The company says it is giving police a powerful tool to catch criminals. Standing in a playground under a Flock video camera, a few dozen feet from children on swings, he said, “I don’t really want my son to grow up in a world where he can be watched by anyone.” But the same bipartisan public anger that has risen up from towns and cities to stall data centers is now aimed at Flock’s spreading camera network . At the meeting, Jordan recounted experiments with Flock cameras he purchased legally. In one, he took control of a camera by repeatedly pressing a button. He also found a way to access a Flock security camera via the internet—and he broadcast its feed.
Known as “wardrivers,” they use scanners to identify the radio signal given off by a camera and log it on DeFlock’s map as a potential site. “It’s a Falcon,” he said, naming the model. “When a car comes by, it’s gonna trigger about six photographs.”
His critics, including an army of people who drive around looking for Flock cameras, also don’t plan to stop. The black camera on a pole was easy to spot. He opened the DeFlock app and marked which way the camera was facing.
