Tell Mayors: Stop Secret Flock Surveillance Deals

Flock cameras are spreading across America right now — and mayors are helping turn our streets into a corporate surveillance grid.

Flock Safety reportedly has about 120,000 cameras in 49 states. These automated license plate readers are used by police, businesses, homeowners associations, and local governments to track where people drive, when they travel, and what communities they move through.

Now the backlash is exploding as cities debate whether to expand, pause, or normalize these systems. Flock has reportedly promised to audit camera placements after safety concerns went viral. But checking where cameras are mounted does nothing to fix the real problem: cities are spending public money to let a private company track us.

Tell the United States Conference of Mayors: Take a public stance against secret Flock surveillance deals.

The United States Conference of Mayors is the national organization representing mayors of cities with 30,000 or more residents. In other words: it represents the city leaders helping Flock spread.

Flock’s business depends on local governments. Mayors approve budgets, oversee police departments, and shape public safety policy. They should not be spending tax dollars on surveillance contracts residents never voted on, never debated, and may not even know exist.

This kind of surveillance is already being misused. Officers have repeatedly used license plate readers to stalk or track women. Police have used Flock searches connected to peaceful protesters. And in one case, a Texas sheriff’s deputy reportedly searched 83,345 Flock cameras nationwide to track a woman accused of self-managing an abortion.

When surveillance spreads without safeguards, people can be tracked, targeted, stopped, or intimidated simply for driving through their own communities. Immigrants, protesters, abortion patients, Black and brown communities, and anyone police or politicians decide to target could be put at risk.

The United States Conference of Mayors must speak out. It cannot cancel every Flock contract itself, but it can set a national standard. It must recommend that cities stop expanding Flock contracts without public hearings, full transparency, independent audits, strict data limits, warrant requirements, and enforceable bans on abusive data-sharing.

Add your name now to tell the United States Conference of Mayors: Stop secret Flock surveillance deals before this surveillance network becomes impossible to escape.

Thanks for all that you do,
Matt from the Swarm