Flock Cameras are Watching Roads, Drivers Across the City of Dubuque

If you've been on social media over the last few months, or have even watched local news, there's a good chance you've heard about "Flock cameras." You've likely heard a bit about the controversy surrounding them.

Simply, put Flock cameras are surveillance cameras manufactured by Flock Safety, a private company based in Atlanta, GA. They are similar to motion-based traffic cameras. They come equipped with a built-in license plate reader that has the capabilities of tracking data about your vehicle and upload those details to the cloud. It can make out your vehicle make, model, color, and event unique qualities about it (including dents in your body). While the cameras were created with the intent of tracking stolen vehicles, or to aid law enforcement, justifiable questions have been levied about the privacy of innocent, everyday individuals.

READ MORE: Dubuque County Supervisors Approve Moratorium on Data Centers

Justin Sullivan, Getty Images

The Controversy Surrounding Flock Cameras:

As of 2025, Flock claimed to operate in over 5,000 communities across 49 US states. At that same point in time, Flock had performed over 20 billion scans of vehicles in the US every single month. Those figures have only increased.

The ACLU has been a vocal critic of Flock cameras, criticizing them as a tool of mass surveillance that has been harvesting a database of information on people's whereabouts and traveling habits. It doesn't take much to interlink the connection of Flock cameras with the rise in equally controversial data centers across America. All the information these cameras collect and store has to be housed somewhere.

Where Flock Cameras Exist in Dubuque:

Because the masses rarely stay silent on controversial matters, and there are always some tech-savvy folks looking to harness their powers for the betterment of the community, the website DeFlock exists.

This crowdsourced, volunteer-powered website shows the exact locations of Flock cameras in cities and locales all across the country. The map is powered by OpenStreetMap community (not a government agency or private company). Furthermore, it's very user-friendly and easy to navigate. Tip of the cap to the folks who spent countless hours making this service and making it as seamless as it is.

DeFlock.org

As you can see from both the photo and map embedded above, numerous Flock cameras exist around Dubuque. Zooming in on the map allows you to gauge the radius of each one of these cameras, and clicking on a blue dot (representing a camera) gives you insights into the device's precise location and model.

DeFlock.org

The AI Boom is Creating More Concerns and Problems:

It goes without saying, but the potential for misuse of these cameras by agencies or even hackers is tremendous. HOAs have begun installing them in private neighborhoods, which means a private company is collecting your movement data as well. A reddit user summarizes one of the many concerns succinctly: "it's the difference between a security guard seeing you walk by and someone logging every trip you take forever."

With the AI boom over the last couple of years, it feels as if technological progress has increased at such a rapid pace that we the people are gradually losing more and more of our agency, and there's little we can do about it. Large-scale data centers are popping up across the country despite residents' very real concerns about their electricity usage and the sanctity of the environment, including land and water supply. And that's not even addressing the lack of job and community benefits from these facilities as well.

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Now, Flock cameras are popping up, and not only are they actively watching us, a private company is storing data on our vehicles and our movements throughout where we live. The most important thing we can do is stay vocal and vigilant.

You can find out more about Flock cameras on Flock Safety's Wikipedia page, and you can find out where Flock cameras exist where you live and where you travel on DeFlock's website.