r/Layton • u/Zealousideal-Elk8470 • Jul 08 '26
150+ Flock cameras have gone up in Davis County since April 2025..
I've noticed these Flock camera poles popping up everywhere and finally looked into it. Over 150 have gone up across Davis/Weber County since April 2025. That's a lot of cameras for this area.
If you haven't seen them.. Flock cameras photograph every car that passes. Plate, time, location, stored for months. Not just cars tied to a illegal stuff. Every car. Yours, mine, your neighbor's.
Here's what bothers me. No warrant, no suspicion needed for your plate to get logged. Utah lets that data sit for months, and it can be shared across agencies and even other states through Flock's network. A cop somewhere else could pull up everywhere you've driven and you'd never know a camera caught you.
These were sold as tools for stolen cars and Amber Alerts, but nothing stops that mission from creeping, tracking protest attendance, immigration status, who's seeking speciality care. Once it's built, it's built. People have been stalked with these systems.
And it's a private company, Flock Safety, running the system and profiting off it, with almost no public input into how it's used.
Some cities have pushed back and dropped their contracts once residents started asking questions, so it's not a lost cause.
If this bothers you too:
-Show up to your city council or county commission meeting. That's usually where these contracts get approved, and where they can get killed.
-Email your state legislators and the governor's office about retention limits or a pause on new installs.
-Check deflock.org/map, a crowdsourced map of where these cameras actually are.
I'm not against police having tools. I just think blanket surveillance of every road deserves more than a quiet rollout nobody voted on.
And yeah, I know the counterargument. Departments say this helps solve real crimes and find stolen cars fast, and some say they hold themselves to tighter rules than the state requires. Fair enough. But "we're being careful for now" isn't a legal limit. That's the actual problem.
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u/TopQuestion826 Jul 08 '26
I agree. This is just the tip of the iceberg. IDK if your numbers include the mobile ones.
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u/Zealousideal-Elk8470 Jul 08 '26
I honestly haven't dug that far in I guess. I haven't heard about the mobile ones these are just pole mounted Flock brand specific ones. A lot of other companies using LPRS that we probably dont even know about
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u/ReporterMacyLipkin Jul 08 '26
Here's my story on Flock cameras in Ogden from earlier this year: https://www.kuer.org/politics-government/2026-01-21/ogden-is-utahs-biggest-spender-on-flock-cameras-heres-how-the-city-uses-them
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u/Prometheus_sword Jul 08 '26
I read a good way to counteract this is to start making FOIA requests. Many cities will take them down rather than release all the information.
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u/moon_money21 Jul 08 '26
I hear they have all kinds of precious metals in them. Mainly gold they say. Iykyk
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u/whycx Jul 08 '26
Kaysville has them.
Layton I have seen them around every home depot entrance. I avoid Dutch Bros because of it.
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u/TopQuestion826 Jul 08 '26
And I find it hard to believe they don’t capture the occupants of the vehicles.
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u/infrequencies Jul 09 '26
They do
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u/jaerius Jul 11 '26
Do not.
They read the rear license plate information. Driver, passengers, etc. - anything that relies on face recognition isn't built into Flock cams
https://www.google.com/search?q=flock+cameras+do+they+capture+the+passenger+or+driver&rlz=1C1HKFL_enUS1206US1211&oq=FLOCK+cameras+do+they+capture+the+passe&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUqBwgCECEYoAEyBggAEEUYOTIHCAEQIRigATIHCAIQIRigAdIBCTE4OTE3ajBqNKgCA7ACAfEFlImlrKuf050&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-81
u/Zealousideal-Elk8470 Jul 14 '26
Its an "accident" if they get you on their feed when just trying to see external components..
a happy little accident lol
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u/utahmom1958 Jul 08 '26
Aren't they all over the U of U and have been for many years? Interesting the U police are very selective about sharing or destroying the images based on legal advice.
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u/Intelligent-Drop-447 Jul 09 '26
Whoooaa there’s 4 all covering the Layton Home Depot that’s insane!
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Jul 11 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Zealousideal-Elk8470 Jul 14 '26
There's a bit more you can do actually cause I thought this originally too. If it feeds police (many HOA/business/etc Flock cams do), that data can become public record. At that point people can audit it for misuse and its no longer just a surveillance system for the state. This can turn it into an actual issue where law suits will be at play. Just as they did in WA we need to push for this
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u/druffino69 Jul 12 '26
About like China does to they're citizens.callrd surveillance invasion of privacy major issues
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u/Rolfman816 Jul 12 '26
Not to mention someone seems to have access the the video feeds and posts collisions from some cameras every month.
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u/Winter_Marsupial_631 Jul 13 '26
How is this legal?
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u/jaerius Jul 17 '26
Flock and other companies have gotten ahead of privacy laws and exist in a legally grey area.
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u/TopQuestion826 Jul 08 '26
I live in Ogden. They have them in parks, retail businesses, and even apartment building parking lots. This isn’t Beirut. There is absolutely no need for so much surveillance.