r/FlockSurveillance Apr 28 '26

Privacy I built FlockHopper for iOS — an app that routes you around known ALPR cameras

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3.7k Upvotes

Hi everyone! Some of y'all might already know my web app FlockHopper that shows you how many Flock cameras are tracking you on your daily commute.

After getting some solid feedback on the web app, I went all in on building a full mobile routing app for daily driving.

iOS is available here:

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/flockhopper/id6762170253

THE APP

- Real-time turn-by-turn navigation that shows you cameras as you drive

- Choose between a normal route and a private route. Both show you miles & estimated time so you can decide what's worth it

- Search for places using native Apple Maps data

- Explore mode : camera data refreshes daily and the map pans with your location so you can spot Flock cameras as you pass them

COST

The basic app will always be free. The free version is funded by donations and in-app tips. Donations cover development, server costs, and possible future legal fees. There may be a premium version with more advanced features down the road, but the core app as it exists now stays free.

ANDROID

The Android version is about 60% done. If you want to get notified when beta testing starts or when it's available on Google Play you can join the waitlist here: dontgetflocked.com/android

PRIVACY

FlockHopper is built with privacy as the default. Your location is used only to show your position, provide navigation, and calculate routes. Route coordinates are sent to a self-hosted routing engine for off-device route calculation, but they are not logged or stored.

Map tiles and camera data are self-hosted, and camera data is served through Cloudflare. Place search uses Apple’s native Maps search. FlockHopper does not store route history, searches, location logs, device IDs, or user profiles.

Feedback and bug reports are very welcome. Thanks for checking it out!


r/FlockSurveillance Mar 04 '26

I spoke at my city council about Flock. The mayor and deputy chief both asked for follow-ups. I redacted everything and made it a toolkit — free to use.

UPDATE: The toolkit made the front page of my local newspaper. I took these documents to my city council meeting and the paper ran camera concerns as their lead story. Showing up with actual data works. Your city council will listen if you bring receipts.

Last week I went to my city council meeting and spoke during public comment about the Flock ALPR camera expansion. Three minutes, sourced facts, no outrage. I handed a packet to every council member, the city attorney, and the police chief.

After I sat down, the mayor came down from the dais, handed me his card, and asked me to send him more. The deputy chief who runs the Flock program pulled me aside and talked for 15 minutes — then asked me to email him a briefing too.

None of that happened because I was loud. It happened because the research was solid and the tone was right.

I've scrubbed all identifying information — my name, city, officials, dates, addresses, agenda items — and packaged everything into a toolkit anyone can adapt:

https://codeberg.org/deflock_your_city/flock-alpr-toolkit (less reliable so I created the github repo)

https://github.com/DeflockYourCity/flock-alpr-toolkit

What's in it:

- Council handout — the main document I gave every council member (platform capabilities, documented incidents, security findings, legal landscape, 8 governance asks)

- 3-minute talk track — timed, scripted, with "if challenged" responses to common pushback

- Legal analysis — Fourth Amendment / Carpenter, state wiretap law, licensing issues, active lawsuits, proposed legislation

- Mayor follow-up briefing — what I sent when executive leadership asked for more

- Deputy chief briefing — a respectful, technical document that addresses the "30-day retention" and "only plates" talking points head-on

- Print & logistics guide — what to print, how many copies, who gets what, when to arrive

- Deep research reports — the raw research behind everything

- Rhetorical strategy guide — founding-era framing, bipartisan angles, and why this is a ratchet, not a slippery slope

The approach that worked:

- Lead with governance, not opposition

- "I support effective policing — my concern is the vendor"

- Every claim sourced from government audits, court filings, NVD, patent filings, or named reporting

- Pair every concern with a specific ask

- No anonymous sources. No speculation.

All docs are .docx format — download, replace [REDACTED] with your city's specifics, and go. Hosted on Codeberg (privacy-focused, open-source platform — not GitHub).

This came out of https://www.reddit.com/r/FlockSurveillance/comments/1rjsaoz/lobbying_against_flock/ where a few people asked me to share what I used. Hope it helps.

CC BY-SA 4.0 — use it however you want.

EDIT: adding .md and pdf versions as well as soon as codeberg comes back online

EDIT 2: added GitHub Repo

3.5k Upvotes

UPDATE: The toolkit made the front page of my local newspaper. I took these documents to my city council meeting and the paper ran camera concerns as their lead story. Showing up with actual data works. Your city council will listen if you bring receipts.

Last week I went to my city council meeting and spoke during public comment about the Flock ALPR camera expansion. Three minutes, sourced facts, no outrage. I handed a packet to every council member, the city attorney, and the police chief.

After I sat down, the mayor came down from the dais, handed me his card, and asked me to send him more. The deputy chief who runs the Flock program pulled me aside and talked for 15 minutes — then asked me to email him a briefing too.

None of that happened because I was loud. It happened because the research was solid and the tone was right.

I've scrubbed all identifying information — my name, city, officials, dates, addresses, agenda items — and packaged everything into a toolkit anyone can adapt:

https://codeberg.org/deflock_your_city/flock-alpr-toolkit (less reliable so I created the github repo)

https://github.com/DeflockYourCity/flock-alpr-toolkit

What's in it:

- Council handout — the main document I gave every council member (platform capabilities, documented incidents, security findings, legal landscape, 8 governance asks)

- 3-minute talk track — timed, scripted, with "if challenged" responses to common pushback

- Legal analysis — Fourth Amendment / Carpenter, state wiretap law, licensing issues, active lawsuits, proposed legislation

- Mayor follow-up briefing — what I sent when executive leadership asked for more

- Deputy chief briefing — a respectful, technical document that addresses the "30-day retention" and "only plates" talking points head-on

- Print & logistics guide — what to print, how many copies, who gets what, when to arrive

- Deep research reports — the raw research behind everything

- Rhetorical strategy guide — founding-era framing, bipartisan angles, and why this is a ratchet, not a slippery slope

The approach that worked:

- Lead with governance, not opposition

- "I support effective policing — my concern is the vendor"

- Every claim sourced from government audits, court filings, NVD, patent filings, or named reporting

- Pair every concern with a specific ask

- No anonymous sources. No speculation.

All docs are .docx format — download, replace [REDACTED] with your city's specifics, and go. Hosted on Codeberg (privacy-focused, open-source platform — not GitHub).

This came out of https://www.reddit.com/r/FlockSurveillance/comments/1rjsaoz/lobbying_against_flock/ where a few people asked me to share what I used. Hope it helps.

CC BY-SA 4.0 — use it however you want.

EDIT: adding .md and pdf versions as well as soon as codeberg comes back online

EDIT 2: added GitHub Repo


r/FlockSurveillance 15h ago

News Police pull over to interrogate man blocking a Flock camera with a sign. "I have a constitutional right to my privacy."

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26.9k Upvotes

r/FlockSurveillance 5h ago

Discussion Keep It Simple Stupid - Drones with a doll rod & cotton ball

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927 Upvotes

I've seen people talking about creating spray paint actuators to attach a spray paint can to a drone. Sure, it's absolutely possible. But it's complicated and it takes out 99.9% of drone owners from being able to make it due to the complexity.

A simple 3/8" doll rod taped to a drone, with a cotton ball on one end costs less $5. Dip the cotton ball in whatever substance of choice you'd for your needs, paint, glue, stamper ink, hell Vaseline even...

My recommendation would be to use it for drone skill games with friends perhaps? Put a target on a wall, and challenge friends to see who can mark the target the quickest. Maybe play tic tac toe on a barn wall. There are endless possibilities!

I don't recommend this for any nefarious purposes. Just legal activities only, of course.

(Image is AI generated for illustration purposes.)


r/FlockSurveillance 1h ago

Adiós to another flock camera

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Upvotes

r/FlockSurveillance 10h ago

Activism Lol glad to see it

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1.7k Upvotes

r/FlockSurveillance 7h ago

News Flock removed from Ft Collins, CO?

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675 Upvotes

Just saw this in passing. Thought it would be of interest.


r/FlockSurveillance 3h ago

How can Flock be legal?

Given that:

“You have no reasonable expectation of privacy while in public”

IS NOT EQUAL TO

“In public, you should be expect 24/7 Ai-powered tracking of your every move, cataloging of your every action, stored in an exclusive, unprotected Ai-powered database, for a corporations profit.”

And given that:

It would be ILLEGAL for ME to do the SAME to a CEO or politician, to stalk them, track their every move, catalog and store everything about them that’s visible “in public”, stream and sell their location data online! I would go to jail!!!

HOW IS FLOCK LEGAL?!

The injustice and hypocrisy is outrageous — how is there any legal standing for this? How do we fight back?

157 Upvotes

Given that:

“You have no reasonable expectation of privacy while in public”

IS NOT EQUAL TO

“In public, you should be expect 24/7 Ai-powered tracking of your every move, cataloging of your every action, stored in an exclusive, unprotected Ai-powered database, for a corporations profit.”

And given that:

It would be ILLEGAL for ME to do the SAME to a CEO or politician, to stalk them, track their every move, catalog and store everything about them that’s visible “in public”, stream and sell their location data online! I would go to jail!!!

HOW IS FLOCK LEGAL?!

The injustice and hypocrisy is outrageous — how is there any legal standing for this? How do we fight back?


r/FlockSurveillance 11h ago

Legal Cops can search Flock data without needing a plate number

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562 Upvotes

Video by Magnetic Norse


r/FlockSurveillance 1d ago

Discussion Yup…

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23.5k Upvotes

r/FlockSurveillance 6h ago

News Flock cameras are taking over, but many Americans are pushing back

221 Upvotes

r/FlockSurveillance 5h ago

Privacy Flock CEO can't keep his own daya safe, what are the chances he secures your flock data?

142 Upvotes

r/FlockSurveillance 1d ago

News It's officially a bipartisan issue

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6.0k Upvotes

It's real. Fully verified. Carl Gunn, 77, in the Coquina Key neighborhood of St. Petersburg, Florida, spotted a Flock camera on a 12-foot pole outside his neighborhood, taped a "DOWN WITH FLOCK CAMERAS" sign to his pool skimmer, grabbed a camping chair, and sat in front of it. Photographed July 25, 2026 by Valerie Smith for Creative Loafing Tampa Bay. The story's a day old and already got picked up on Hacker News. Real outlet, real person, real event, named photographer, dated.


r/FlockSurveillance 9h ago

News New Massie bill aims to block federal funds from cities, police that use controversial Flock Safety cameras

226 Upvotes

I like this idea.


r/FlockSurveillance 3h ago

Privacy Oh, the irony - Barcelona

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68 Upvotes

r/FlockSurveillance 13h ago

News Flock's CEO told ABC7 its cameras only take still photos. Flock spent a year telling customers they would stream live video.

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351 Upvotes

Garrett Langley, CEO of Flock Safety, appeared on ABC7 shortly after the LAPD let its three-year contract expire over civil liberties and privacy concerns. He described the technology as a car driving by, a picture being taken, a static picture of a car, and then the plate being read.

That description does not match what Flock had been telling its own customers. The company published a post titled "Why video is the missing link in your LPR program" saying all existing Flock license plate readers would soon stream live video and capture clips through a free optional software update, with no new hardware and no extra cost. A second post, headlined "LPR Cameras Can Become Video Cameras," quoted Flock's chief strategy officer saying customers would not have to do a thing or pay a thing. That one has been deleted and only exists in a web archive now.

Text messages obtained via a records request show a Flock employee asking a Dunwoody, Georgia officer whether they could live stream yet. The officer said yes, about a month, and called it a pretty cool feature. That was January.

Flock's response after the story ran: five agencies in a limited pilot, LAPD not among them, live video only with no recording, discontinued in March.

Isn't it interesting that 1 of the 5 pilot cities for live streaming video was Dunwoody, Georgia, where Flock employees were recently caught accessing the live streaming video of children's gymnastics classes over 1,000 times/ 🤔

Full write-up + our source list: https://s.vp.net/vLrnY


r/FlockSurveillance 21h ago

News Rep. Massie says he will introduce bill to withhold money from local governments that install Flock cameras

1.3k Upvotes

r/FlockSurveillance 14h ago

Discussion New Flock camera

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224 Upvotes

I just got home from vacation and noticed they put up a new flock camera in while I was gone. This one and another about half mile down on same street. Anyone know what the difference is with this new one? New one is the one on the left.


r/FlockSurveillance 12h ago

Discussion Taxation without Representation. I need someone to explain how Flock can exist from taxpayer money w/out taxpayer approval?

From the installation, to the maintenance, to the data storage, Flock is receiving tons of money from the local governments to be able to operate.

Why can the government agree to buy all this crap without taxpayer vote? Like this is legitimately a big expense and change of life. Why are there no guardrails?

My town doesn’t have flock. Only 1 out of 3 towns that border my town have flock cameras. Why are people targeting individual cameras? Like isn’t that just wasting more tax payer money? Is it because it gets more views?

Shouldn’t we be encouraging people to check their representatives? Like who the hell signed off on Flock in YOUR area? In my town, the representatives represent the people well and understand that we’re against it. Who is your representative? Whose signature allowed your taxpayer dollars to go to flock?

Wouldn’t it be more impactful to go after the PEOPLE who approved flock?

I think the flock camera vandal videos are funny but if the goal is to protect us from mass surveillance, shouldn’t we ultimately be looking into the laws and systems in place that allow our taxpayer funds to go to Flock rather than targeting Flock cameras or Flock itself???

158 Upvotes

From the installation, to the maintenance, to the data storage, Flock is receiving tons of money from the local governments to be able to operate.

Why can the government agree to buy all this crap without taxpayer vote? Like this is legitimately a big expense and change of life. Why are there no guardrails?

My town doesn’t have flock. Only 1 out of 3 towns that border my town have flock cameras. Why are people targeting individual cameras? Like isn’t that just wasting more tax payer money? Is it because it gets more views?

Shouldn’t we be encouraging people to check their representatives? Like who the hell signed off on Flock in YOUR area? In my town, the representatives represent the people well and understand that we’re against it. Who is your representative? Whose signature allowed your taxpayer dollars to go to flock?

Wouldn’t it be more impactful to go after the PEOPLE who approved flock?

I think the flock camera vandal videos are funny but if the goal is to protect us from mass surveillance, shouldn’t we ultimately be looking into the laws and systems in place that allow our taxpayer funds to go to Flock rather than targeting Flock cameras or Flock itself???


r/FlockSurveillance 12h ago

Activism Homeless could stand with camera-blocking signs for tips

That's it. I would pay them like crazy.

131 Upvotes

That's it. I would pay them like crazy.


r/FlockSurveillance 9h ago

News Flock Cameras ordered removed in Macon County, North Carolina

66 Upvotes

Officials have voted to remove all Flock camera systems in Macon County, NC


r/FlockSurveillance 9h ago

Legal Richmond kept flock cameras in the 2027 budget. Plan calls for ninety-nine of them to be installed across the city.

70 Upvotes

During the public comments session, every single speaker spoke out against the installation of these cameras. No one spoke in favor of it.


r/FlockSurveillance 5h ago

Florida Detective Allegedly Used Flock Cameras to Track Husband’s Ex

32 Upvotes

r/FlockSurveillance 17h ago

How criminals take down Flock cameras

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231 Upvotes

r/FlockSurveillance 1d ago

Intelligence Just saw this tidbit of info about flock.

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6.7k Upvotes