When “Smart” Surveillance Outsmarts Local Control

Earlier this week, the City of Mountain View decided to shut down its network of 30 Flock automated license plate reader (ALPR) cameras. Why? The city discovered that the private vendor, Flock Safety, had been sharing location data with outside agencies without authorization or transparency.

When Mountain View initially partnered with Flock Safety in May 2024, the police department offered residents firm assurances. Police Chief Mike Canfield promised that data would only be shared with other California agencies that specifically agreed to Mountain View’s strict data policies.

However, a public records request by a local news outlet revealed a different reality. As the department prepared its response, it discovered that Flock had unilaterally activated a “statewide lookup tool.” This feature allowed hundreds of California police departments to scour Mountain View’s database for 17 months without the city’s knowledge. Even more alarming, it was revealed that out-of-state agencies had unauthorized access to a city camera for several months in 2024.

Profit Over Privacy

This is a textbook example of how privacy is being abused by tech companies. In the surveillance industry, data liquidity is often marketed as a feature. Yet, for the public, this liquidity represents a massive leak in the bucket of civil liberties.

In his letter to the community, Chief Canfield expressed a sentiment that many privacy advocates share: “I personally no longer have confidence in this particular vendor.” He noted that the company’s lack of proactive disclosure and their circumvention of built-in protections were “frankly unacceptable.”

The Mountain View City Council is set to meet on February 24 to decide the fate of these cameras. While the police chief has already stated he opposes reactivating them due to the breach of trust, the broader lesson remains: surveillance technology is only as safe as the ethics of the company providing it.

A Pattern of Corporate Overreach

Mountain View is not alone. Cities like Eugene, Oregon, and Cambridge, Massachusetts, have previously criticized Flock for leaving cameras active even after being ordered to turn them off.

This behaviour points to a systemic issue in the “surveillance-as-a-service” industry. When companies control the hardware, the software, and the cloud where data lives, they hold the keys to the kingdom.

Written by Clement Saudu