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Where the backlash against Flock Safety is having the biggest impact
More than 90 cities ended Flock Safety contracts in August as Texas and Florida restrict license plate reader use amid privacy protests.
Over 90 cities and counties terminated Flock Safety contracts in August, per Secure Justice, which has tracked more than 200 municipal terminations since 2021. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott barred state agencies from funding Flock cameras on Aug. 28 after a report that a state agency secretly diverted $30 million; Florida's transportation department banned ALPRs on state highways and Gov. Ron DeSantis criticized the technology. Los Angeles chose not to renew its LAPD contract over data-ownership terms, and Atlanta's mayor ordered a 30-day review of the roughly 5,000 ALPR cameras in the metro area. Several Flock-related police abuse cases, including a Texas officer indicted on 100 felony counts, have fueled the backlash.
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Hackers Got Inside a Flock Camera. Its Data Shows How the System Really Works
Hackers stole a Flock Safety camera, copied its storage, and recovered an encryption key exposing vehicle surveillance data and system internals.
Hackers from the collective stegan0gram removed a Flock Safety license plate reader from a roadway, copied its storage, and recovered an encryption key stored in an unencrypted partition, unlocking videos of thousands of vehicle detections. The data, shared with 404 Media, WIRED, and Distributed Denial of Secrets, shows the camera generated roughly 1.6 million images of about 50,200 vehicles over 21 days and detects people, bicycles, and bumper stickers in addition to license plates. The dump follows 2025 research by Jon 'GainSec' Gaines documenting flaws enabling root access, which Flock downplayed. Flock's national network makes camera records searchable by more than 2,000 agencies, fueling controversy over police and immigration lookups.
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Cops Search Thousands of Flock Cameras for Reasons of ‘LMAO,’ ‘IDK,’ ‘Hehe,’ and ‘asdfg’
EFF analysis found police searched Flock's 19,000-camera ALPR network using joke reasons like 'LMAO' and 'idk,' exposing routine warrantless surveillance abuse.
An EFF analysis of Flock audit logs, shared with 404 Media, found officers across dozens of jurisdictions searching over 19,000 cameras in 1,558 cities with justifications like 'LMAO,' 'idk,' and keyboard gibberish between 2023 and late 2025. One Lake County, Indiana sheriff's deputy searched for a license plate across the entire network citing 'LMAO.' After outlets exposed searches targeting ICE detainees, an abortion patient, and protesters, officers were reportedly told to be 'as vague as permissible,' and Flock replaced the free-text reason box with a prepopulated drop-down list, which EFF called a loss for transparency. Departments rarely disciplined offending officers, and EFF concluded agencies cannot oversee themselves.
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Claude Fable Solves a Historical Cipher
Bruce Schneier's blog highlights that the Claude Fable AI model solved a historical cipher, demonstrating LLM capabilities in cryptanalysis.
Bruce Schneier's blog post discusses the Claude Fable AI model successfully deciphering a historical cipher. The post frames the result as a notable example of LLMs applied to classical cryptanalysis. The published text provides limited technical detail beyond the headline.
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Texas Police Used AI to Write Report About Using Flock to Search for Woman Who Had Abortion
Johnson County, Texas deputies used Axon's Draft One AI to write a report about searching 80,000+ Flock cameras for a woman who self-administered an abortion.
Documents show the Johnson County Sheriff's Office used Flock's nationwide camera network and Axon's Draft One, which drafts police reports from body camera audio, in its investigation of a woman's self-administered abortion. The AI-generated report summarized deputies' discussion of legal implications, noting Texas law provided no applicable criminal charges. Flock CEO Garrett Langley has repeatedly claimed the search was a family welfare check, but earlier police reports indicate it was initiated at the behest of the woman's abusive partner.
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Doctor Doom Thanked Seattle for All the Surveillance Cameras
Activist dressed as Doctor Doom urged Seattle's council to curb Axon and Flock surveillance after a committee voted to redirect $250,000 from CCTV expansion.
Clifford Cawthon, a policy advisor at the Washington State Department of Commerce, appeared at a Seattle Public Safety Committee meeting in costume as Doctor Doom to protest the city's expanding mass surveillance. He criticized Seattle PD's access to 62 cameras feeding an Axon real-time crime center that ingests CCTV, body camera, geolocation, ALPR, and dispatch data from vendors like Axon and Flock. His group Community Not Cameras submitted a petition with five demands, and a committee already voted to move $250,000 away from CCTV expansion pending full council approval.
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Why the current tech backlash feels different
The Verge's Decoder mailbag discusses the current tech backlash, arguing AI hype overstates verifiability outside software engineering.
Nilay Patel's Decoder mailbag episode addresses listener feedback on the widely discussed 'software brain' essay. He argues AI hype is concentrated on software because code is verifiable through compilation, while domains like drug discovery, math and science lack equivalent verifiability. The episode also touches on AI backlash, surveillance, data centers and upcoming midterm coverage.
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