Discovered via Have I Been Flocked RSS feed.
There were two sets of promises made about Flock Safety’s cameras in Dunwoody. One was made to a private community center. One was made to the public. Both were broken by the same two parties.
In September 2024, Dunwoody PD Major Patrick Krieg requested access to the private security cameras at a community center on behalf of the department. When the community center pushed back and demanded to know what the access would be used for, Krieg was unambiguous: “This is solely for real-time critical incident response.” The community center agreed to share their cameras, including cameras in gymnastics rooms, pools, and fitness studios, with Dunwoody PD for emergencies.
To the broader public, the City made the same promise in a different form: Flock is a public safety tool that catches criminals and keeps your community safe. It’s only used for law enforcement purposes. When citizens raised concerns, we were given three minutes at a podium, requests for open meetings were ignored, and we were silenced by a unanimous vote.
Both promises had the same problem: while the city was making them, Flock employees were inside Dunwoody’s camera network, including a private community center’s cameras (the ones shared solely for emergencies) to allegedly pitch their product to other law enforcement agencies.
From 2023 through April 2026, Flock employees viewed live and recorded cameras in Dunwoody over 1,000 times. In 2025 alone, they searched Dunwoody citizens’ data over 400 times. No one in Dunwoody consented to this.
When I asked the City of Dunwoody to produce any agreement authorizing this, their answer was simple: “The City of Dunwoody found no records that are responsive to your request.”
There was no authorization or explicit permission. Just a promise to a community center, a promise to the public, and a company that treated both like an open door.
Minor quibble.
Self-host Frigate (https://frigate.video/), buy generic Power over Ethernet security cameras (Amcrest has good ones in my experience) and keep everything wired and isolated from your regular LAN. Then you actually control your own security system.
Buy a Nest camera from Amazon and it’ll be easier. They’ll do all of the work for you while helping themselves to video of your property and family for them to do with as they please.
It is in fact true that I could build a system that doesn’t, but any random security camera on any random business I walk past on the street (public land, no implied consent for any activities on the premises)? I have to assume the worst about it now. It’s not just an innocent way to protect property from thieves it’s functionally now part of a massive violation of civil liberties.
Oh yeah, I agree.
The mass data sharing is the core issue. We’re collectively creating a power that nobody should have and yet it’s available for subscription without any regulations.