In Focus delivers deeper coverage of the political, cultural, and ideological issues shaping America.
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Focus → deliver → America
Published daily by senior writers and experts, these in-depth pieces go beyond the headlines to give readers the full picture.
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pieces → publish → picture
You can find our full list of In Focus pieces here.
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You → find → pieces
It has become popular to dump on Flock cameras, with both the Left and the Right fueling a movement away from the technology.
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Left → become → technology
Lost in all of this is what Flock cameras actually do, and how well they work when it comes to taking down real criminals.
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it → lose → criminals
It is no surprise that the political Left opposes Flock cameras — anything that makes life more difficult for criminals is something that left-wing politicians oppose.
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politicians → oppose → that
The Democratic Party movement against ShotSpotter, a form of technology that alerts police to gunfire in neighborhoods, makes that obvious.
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that → alert → neighborhoods
But Republicans have now also put Flock in their crosshairs, with normally tough-on-crime states such as Texas and Florida beginning to block or dismantle Flock infrastructure.
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states → put → infrastructure
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) is among those leading a charge to investigate Flock Safety and its data collection and storage.
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Hawley → lead → Safety
The objection to Flock cameras stems from two factors.
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objection → stem → factors
The first is that the cameras, which are automated license plate readers used to locate vehicles driven by criminals or suspects in serious crimes, are powered by artificial intelligence.
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which → automate → intelligence
This makes them inherently controversial in our anti-AI, anti-data center (Chinese-influenced) environment.
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them → make → environment
The second, more notable criticism stems from the idea that Flock cameras (and other competing license plate readers) are a form of mass surveillance that is, or someday will be, rife with government abuse.
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that → stem → abuse
Flock Safety has already taken steps to assuage those surveillance concerns.
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Safety → take → concerns
The company introduced a new security measure that flags abnormal usage of the cameras, such as the few cases where police officers have used them to stalk ex-girlfriends.
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officers → introduce → girlfriends
All searches are now required to be tied to a case number.
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searches → require → number
Flock Safety also introduced several features it now recommends to its customers (the cities that utilize Flock cameras), including limiting data storage from 30 days to seven days (allowing longer storage for active investigations) and allowing cities to restrict what crimes outside police departments can search for in their jurisdictions.
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crimes → introduce → jurisdictions
As Flock explains it, “City A could allow City B to search its cameras only for a stolen vehicle, missing person, or violent crime while blocking searches related to immigration enforcement.”
With those safeguards in place, it does not make sense to adopt or reject this technology on what a few criminal police officers do with it.
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officers → explain → it
If we did that with every policing tool, there would be no policing tools left.
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we → do → tool
At the end of the day, these cameras are AI-powered license plate readers that function in a similar fashion to red light and speeding cameras, installed on public roads or in public spaces where cars drive or park.
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cars → power → spaces
In order to evaluate the trade-offs that follow the already-addressed “mass surveillance” concerns, we have to look at what Flock cameras and other license plate readers actually accomplish.
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cameras → evaluate → what
They are not used to ring up drivers for traffic infractions.
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They → use → infractions
Flock cameras essentially function as CCTV cameras, with the tracking element automated by artificial intelligence.
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element → function → intelligence
The Investigation Discovery show See No Evil offers examples of what the policing process looks like pre-Flock, as it follows police officers who use surveillance footage to solve homicide cases.
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who → offer → cases
Some episodes will show officers going to a business to catch a glimpse of a suspicious vehicle on camera, determine what direction it is moving, and move to the next business in that vehicle’s path to check more camera footage.
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it → show → footage
This process can end up being repeated multiple times, costing manpower and valuable time.
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process → end → manpower
Flock automates that process, recording the license plate of the suspicious vehicle and flagging it on each camera that it passes.
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it → automate → that
The result is that more criminals can be caught, and done so in a faster time frame.
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criminals → catch → frame
A study on the efficacy of Flock cameras found that motor vehicle thefts fell by 11% after their deployment, while motor vehicle arrest clearance rates increased 15.9%.
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rates → find → deployment
This is a substantial success, given that motor vehicle theft is among the most difficult crimes to clear.
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theft → give → crimes
But automated license plate readers, like Flock’s cameras, are useful for solving violent crimes as well.
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readers → automate → crimes
Charles Fain Lehman of the Manhattan Institute has built a database of documented Flock successes, which includes Flock cameras being used to solve 76 homicides and 105 shootings in 2026 alone.
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cameras → build → 2026
Flock cameras have also been used 31 times this year to arrest fugitives, and 59 times to locate missing or abducted persons.
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cameras → use → persons
The missing and abducted cases range from locating elderly people who have been reported missing, such as the Georgia man with dementia who was found driving within six minutes of the report, to children abducted by sexual predators, such as the 12-year-old South Carolina girl who was kidnapped after being groomed on social media and found in Arkansas.
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who → miss → Arkansas
The Arkansas case is a perfect example of the Flock-less process mentioned earlier.
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case → mention → process
According to local media, “Between 10 and 15 deputies and investigators went door to door and contacted businesses along the highway, searching for recordings that could help identify” the Chevrolet Malibu for which they were searching.
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they → accord → which
It was a Flock camera that found the vehicle and identified its license plate, informing investigators that the driver was from Arkansas and that the car was passing through Alabama, heading west, toward Arkansas.
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car → find → Arkansas
The girl was found within two hours of officers confirming the information Flock had given them.
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Flock → find → them
Without Flock cameras, local law enforcement would have had to continue going door to door to businesses along the highway, searching for a camera recording that showed enough of the car’s license plate to identify the vehicle.
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that → have → vehicle
It could have taken days under this method.
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It → take → method
…and 6 more, not listed.
The Aporia
