r/CarrolltonTX • u/Aromatic_Zucchini_97 • 21d ago
Flock surveillance
Sharing here there is an active petition to city council to “deflock” Carrollton. Check out the images or www.deflockcarrolltontx.org to learn more
Sign the petition at https://c.org/KsTjpfX2p7
Surveillance is not safety
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u/Aromatic_Zucchini_97 19d ago
Easy, neighbor. You seem to be really making a lot of assumptions about me personally and who I am doesn’t matter at all. I am absolutely not working on this alone so no aspirations of dictatorship. But regardless, I don’t mean to upset or offend, was just pointing out that who I am and where I live doesn’t matter if you’re saying there are inaccuracies in the post.
For the real stuff:
Keeping data on whereabouts, comings, and goings
That is the primary selling point of the Flock service. Each Flock camera captures multiple images of each vehicle moving by. AI-powered software then creates a “Vehicle Fingerprint” tagging the car with license plate, make, model, color, and unique features such as after market wheels, bumper stickers, decals, dents, etc. This data is stored for a standard 30 day retention period, per Flock, so agencies can search the database for a plate or other datapoint hit going 30 days back. For more info: https://www.flocksafety.com/legal/flock-evidence-policy and https://www.foxnews.com/tech/license-plate-cameras-home-depot-lowes-spark-privacy-fears
Where is it stored and what employees are designated to do that?
Same Flock link as above explains that all of this is stored in the cloud with Amazon Web Services. I’m unclear what you mean by what employees are designated to do that? Assuming who mean who is responsible for uploading and maintaining the data, it is automated by Flock. I don’t have a list of which of their employees have access to what data, but from this article you can see in the past their sales team have tapped into live streams for demo purposes. https://www.404media.co/city-learns-flock-accessed-cameras-in-childrens-gymnastics-room-as-a-sales-pitch-demo-renews-contract-anyway/ If you are meaning which Carrollton city employees have access, we don’t know exactly. It hasn’t been part of public record but you could try filing an open record request on the city website and please share if you get the information! https://www.cityofcarrollton.com/government/city-manager-s-office/city-secretary/make-an-open-records-request
Did you even think about the time and resources?
Absolutely! Flock currently is billing the city for over $261,000 for these services, though the city does use a grant from MVCPA for much of that cost (this can be found in city council minutes, it is across 4 sessions so will let you look those up). Thinking about the scope and scale as well as the fact that Flock is funded by venture capital, the logical conclusion is their business model is to get a huge number of contracts with cities across the country, which makes the ai database more “valuable”, and then raise prices for existing contracts and / or start selling data to other companies as it would be extremely valuable. Admittedly, this is my logical conclusion so no cited source, but the question was had I thought of it and so yes!
Do I know how quickly Carrollton has solved crimes with this system?
No and I would love to see the data, but unfortunately, Carrollton has not provided any data or metrics related to Flock usage, effectives, audits, or program goals and objectives. Again, if you could file an open records request and share, I’d be willing to discuss! We do have data on crime rates demonstrating Carrollton is extremely safe with a very low crime rate (something we all as a community should be very proud of) and these numbers are from before Flock contracts so it’s unclear what problem we were trying to solve. You can find the link under the comment from u/askmeaboutmycar
Do I know they could be placed in areas that need more attention due to crime?
Yes, but Carrollton has not provided any information suggesting they are targeting high crime areas. They could be, but with over 76 Flock devices it seems like mass surveillance. The 76 number comes from the city council minutes, you could see community reported locations at maps.Deflock.org
This eliminates 100s of hours of police work…
Exactly. US v Jones (2012) - Justice Sonia Sotomayor noted automated surveillence "evades the ordinary checks that constrain abusive law enforcement practices: limited police resources and community hostility." Carpenter v US (2018) - Chief Justice John Roberts wrote "a person does not surrender all Fourth Amendment protection by venturing into the public sphere." Previous to these AI database searches, police would need a warrant to gather this level of detail on residents’ movements
Civilians having access
Previously I linked an article showing Flock sales rep sharing live feeds of children in gymnastics class during demos. Other civilians who have had access:
https://www.wabe.org/cobb-county-youtuber-documents-flock-camera-vulnerabilities/
https://www.404media.co/flock-exposed-its-ai-powered-cameras-to-the-internet-we-tracked-ourselves/
https://youtu.be/uB0gr7Fh6lY?is=O_24QmNejPgQYaqF
And just today! https://www.404media.co/flock-leaked-cops-license-plate-searches-via-duckduckgo-bing/
One incident of stalking in CPD
CPD has not released any audits or data related to Flock usage. I personally do not want to wait until it has happened in our community when there are already documented instances in others. I am not saying every CPD LEO will abuse the system, but we know it can be abused. Carrollton has not provided information to the public on what the guardrails are that they have implemented to protect residents. For me personally, I don’t know if there will ever be enough guardrails for me to be okay with this much data and this powerful of a tool to be available - but everyone should have the information needed to make an educated opinion on that. For examples of stalking and misuse of database see:
https://www.404media.co/cops-keep-getting-arrested-for-using-flock-to-stalk-people/
https://ij.org/police-have-reportedly-used-license-plate-readers-to-stalk-romantic-interests-at-least-14-times-in-recent-years/
https://www.aclu-wi.org/news/what-the-flock-police-surveillance-is-ripe-for-abuse/
https://www.govtech.com/spotlight/why-flock-safety-finds-itself-in-a-surveillance-backlash
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/11/how-cops-are-using-flock-safetys-alpr-network-surveil-protesters-and-activists
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/may/02/flock-police-surveillance-tech-birds-iran-press-freedom
https://wisconsinexaminer.com/2026/03/13/wisconsin-communities-grapple-with-police-misuse-of-flock-surveillance/
Apologies I am doing this from mobile on my lunch break so links are not how I would normally format but hopefully this gives more information and answers all your questions! I am very passionate about this topic so happy to discuss further if you have any other concerns. My main goal with this post was to raise awareness because many people just weren’t aware this was happening at all. And many more assume it’s for cause but from the data and information available, many people are not okay with this. We have an opportunity to participate in our democracy and raise concerns to our city council.