Image by Oselote - Getty Images Using traffic cameras for mass surveillance concept image It is no surprise that Milwaukee is in the midst of a surveillance crisis. It was clear through the year-long push against Facial Recognition Technology (FRT) with the City and County, that residents don’t want to be surveilled by law enforcement and military contractors through weird public/private business relationships. What we are hearing about FLOCK is more of the same. FLOCK is an Automated License Plate Recognition (ALPR) system that Milwaukee’s Police and Sheriff Departments currently use to surveil us. This week, the City of Appleton voted to end their usage of Flock. Just this month, Oshkosh and Sturgeon Bay refused to renew their contracts. Verona will end theirs also. Dane County will terminate its contract in May, and the City of Madison has ordinances protecting their residents from ALPRs being deployed. They’re doing this for many reasons. First and foremost, there are no guardrails that can guarantee our safety, nor meaningful arguments for such invasive, large-scale surveillance that feeds into an already expansive web of digital stalking. ICE and other federal agencies have been shown to directly or sneakily access this information from law enforcement agencies all across the country. It Goes On and On My Friends… Right now, there is a web of over 92,000 FLOCK cameras and counting across the nation. This creates a dragnet surveillance of all people whether or not they are suspected of a crime or wanted for any particular reason. What many don’t realize is that the cameras pick up everything in the range of their view. Not just license plates. They use AI to hone-in on the licenses, but everything is covered. This has been shown extensively and regardless of the data accessible through the agreement with the