Having failed to win the battle of public opinion over Defund the Police even in their own party, and steadily losing local power, hardened San Francisco Bay Area leftists have turned to a new target: Flock Safety surveillance cameras.
The company’s automated license plate-reading cameras have grown in use throughout the region, provoking public backlash in city council meetings. Flock has provoked similar backlash nationwide, as some people have taken to vandalizing or destroying their cameras.
Unlike the failed Defund the Police hysteria or electing far-left soft-on-crime district attorneys, anti-Flock activists have the benefit of being able to ostensibly sell their message to conservatives or middle-of-the-road voters on privacy grounds. Similar to the Patriot Act under the Bush administration, select conservatives have criticized the company and its level of reach, including Senator Josh Hawley, who stated, “I’m investigating Flock cameras to determine who has access to hundreds of millions of Americans’ data and what they’re doing with it.”
While it would be great if cities across the United States all maintained a healthy police presence, sane district attorneys, and a high-trust population where crimes were rare, the unfortunate fact is that the most dedicated activists against Flock want none of those things. As one San Francisco Bay Area resident put it at an Alameda County Board of Supervisors meeting, “Having Flock cameras will not keep us safe. These cameras will go up in the neighborhoods where people of color live and we can be damn sure that this information will be taken by the feds and shared with ICE.”
Certain San Francisco politicians have expressed similar sentiment against the company, as it has continued the rift between leftists and moderates within the city’s Democratic Party. Gary McCoy, a former staffer for outgoing Representative Nancy Pelosi who is running for the Board of Supervisors, proclaimed himself an advocate of private rights against the company, while proceeding to argue that “privacy” entails not enforcing laws against illegal immigrants.
Flock is obviously not immune from criticism, and there are issues where a left-right coalition has emerged that deservedly pushes back on an establishment consensus. Still, any conservative politicians or voters pushing back on Flock cameras should be wary that they don’t unwittingly harm their own public safety goals, and avoid re-empowering the usual soft-on-crime suspects.
