When Flock Comes to Your Town: I Asked Experts What to Do About These AI Cameras

When Flock Comes to Your Town: I Asked Experts What to Do About These AI Cameras Flock is setting up surveillance cams and drones in cities nationwide. Citizens are fighting back. Here's everything you should know.

Tyler Lacoma Editor / Home Security and Smart Home Tyler has worked on, lived with and tested all types of smart home and security technology for over a dozen years, explaining the latest features, privacy tricks, and top recommendations. With degrees in Business Management, Literature and Technical Writing, Tyler takes every opportunity to play with the latest AI technology, push smart devices to their limits and occasionally throw cameras off his roof, all to find the best devices to trust in your life. He always checks with the renters (and pets) in his life to see what smart products can work for everyone, in every living situation.

Living in beautiful Bend, Oregon gives Tyler plenty of opportunities to test the latest tech in every kind of weather and temperature. But when not at work, he can be found hiking the trails, trying out a new food recipe for his loved ones, keeping up on his favorite reading, or gaming with good friends. Expertise Smart home | Smart security | Home tech | Energy savings | A/V See full bio Tyler Lacoma July 16, 2026 5:00 p.

m. PT 15 min read When Flock Comes to Your Town: I Asked Experts What to Do About These AI Cameras When Flock Comes to Your Town: I Asked Experts What to Do About These AI Cameras Flock is setting up surveillance cams and drones in cities nationwide. Citizens are fighting back.

Here's everything you should know. Tyler Lacoma Editor / Home Security and Smart Home Tyler has worked on, lived with and tested all types of smart home and security technology for over a dozen years, explaining the latest features, privacy tricks, and top recommendations. With degrees in Business Management, Literature and Technical Writing, Tyler takes every opportunity to play with the latest AI technology, push smart devices to their limits and occasionally throw cameras off his roof, all to find the best devices to trust in your life.

He always checks with the renters (and pets) in his life to see what smart products can work for everyone, in every living situation. Living in beautiful Bend, Oregon gives Tyler plenty of opportunities to test the latest tech in every kind of weather and temperature. But when not at work, he can be found hiking the trails, trying out a new food recipe for his loved ones, keeping up on his favorite reading, or gaming with good friends.

Expertise Smart home | Smart security | Home tech | Energy savings | A/V See full bio Tyler Lacoma July 16, 2026 5:00 p.m. PT 15 min read Tyler Lacoma Editor / Home Security and Smart Home Tyler has worked on, lived with and tested all types of smart home and security technology for over a dozen years, explaining the latest features, privacy tricks, and top recommendations.

With degrees in Business Management, Literature and Technical Writing, Tyler takes every opportunity to play with the latest AI technology, push smart devices to their limits and occasionally throw cameras off his roof, all to find the best devices to trust in your life. He always checks with the renters (and pets) in his life to see what smart products can work for everyone, in every living situation. Living in beautiful Bend, Oregon gives Tyler plenty of opportunities to test the latest tech in every kind of weather and temperature.

But when not at work, he can be found hiking the trails, trying out a new food recipe for his loved ones, keeping up on his favorite reading, or gaming with good friends. Expertise Smart home | Smart security | Home tech | Energy savings | A/V See full bio Tyler Lacoma July 16, 2026 5:00 p.m.

PT 15 min read Hundreds of cities across the US had adopted a now-familiar brand: Flock Safety surveillance systems, using controversial, AI license plate detection cameras and broad contracts with local police. Now cities, from my home of Bend, Oregon, to the LAPD in Los Angeles, are canceling their Flock contracts, while other towns are even covering Flock cameras with plastic bags while trying to figure out if the cams are actually shut down. So, what does it mean when you spot the first camera-and-solar-panel Flock setup in your own neighborhood?

I talked to Flock, the American Civil Liberties Union and others about what you need to know. Read more: State Laws Against Surveillance and License Plate CamsFlock made headlines late last year during widespread crackdowns by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Though Flock doesn't have a direct partnership with federal agencies (a blurry line I'll discuss below), law enforcement agencies are free to share data with departments like ICE, and they frequently do.

And Flock Safety coverage, along with citizen concerns, has only risen since then. One study from the Center for Human Rights at the University of Washington found that at least eight Washington law enforcemen