There are now around 120,000 Flock cameras in operation across the US. These devices automatically read license plates and make their locations available to law enforcement. Flock now also makes it possible to look up cars by their descriptions, rather than just relying on plates. As one might expect, this has proved very useful in solving crimes. Just as predictably, it has caused a popular backlash.
Tucker Carlson is outraged, having made resistance to Flock cameras one of the messages he prints out on the hats he sells for allowing his fans to broadcast their low socioeconomic status. Groups that are worth taking more seriously, like the Institute for Justice and the ACLU, have also expressed concerns. How much should we worry? And where should we come down in this particular iteration of the old debate of liberty versus security?
Flock Cameras Likely Explain the Recent Crime Collapse
On the plus side of this technology, a 2023 study from the company itself estimated that Flock cameras are used in solving 700K crimes each year, or approximately 10% of all reported crime in the US. This study involved surveying law enforcement agencies that were Flock customers, ending up with 123 respondents that provided data researchers considered adequate for analysis. They were asked “How many arrests have you made that can directly be attributed to the use of a Flock Safety camera?” and asked to provide corresponding case records.
From there, the authors make broader estimates of society at large. More recent research from Flock boasts about last year seeing 1,000,000 “cases supported” and helping to locate approximately 10,000 missing persons. The company estimates that its technology was involved in roughly one in five cases cleared in its customer jurisdictions.
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As long as the cameras are confined to public streets and roadways, where there is no reasonable expectation of privacy, I don't really see the problem with police gathering this data, even for a libertarian. A lone, human officer could observe the same public visual stimuli and look up license plate numbers or car descriptions, perhaps even record his findings in a notebook, and he would have the right to direct his own eyes and brain and hand to do so. With Flock, police are doing the same, just more efficiently. If someone has the right to do something, surely they also have the right to do it efficiently. Otherwise what is the limiting principle?
It's fascinating how deeply inculcated Americans are to the idea of living with pervasive violent crime. The casual refrains to avoid certain neighborhoods (at night or all the time), coupled with shoulder shrugging and victim blaming ("what did they think would happen, walking there?") all seems normal until you live in a country where this isn't the case. When you go to a country that has made violent crime basically irrelevant through surveillance, you realize the enormous psychological weight taken off your shoulders. Arguments about theoretical abuses of power really don't move me at all because I am aware of the far more tangible threats from criminals I face every day in a city.