Your city is listening: Thousands of municipalities are secretly using Flock’s AI audio sensors to record and analyse conversations.

“This change represents a new phase in the normalization of mass surveillance.”

What began almost a decade ago as a program to track vehicle license plates has evolved into mass surveillance of all human movements and even our conversations across large parts of America.

Flock Safety, a private surveillance company based in Atlanta, deploys its automatic license plate readers in more than 6,000 communities nationwide as part of a public-private partnership. Due to little to no mainstream media coverage, Flock’s cameras were “upgraded” in October 2025 with AI-powered Raven acoustic sensors capable of detecting human voices.

The system was initially marketed for gunshot detection, but then the speakers were made so sensitive that they could pick up human conversations, naturally under the guise of helping the police respond to people “in distress.” Yes, it’s always about protecting us, and we’re supposed to just trust them with how our data is used.

Like all technocratic measures, this one, which initially sounds reasonable, gradually develops into an invasive application that violates privacy and advances the surveillance state. They are masters of incrementalism.

Flock’s highly sensitive microphones can hear not only gunshots and loud screams, but also many voice conversations, raising privacy concerns and hopefully leading to a number of lawsuits. This hasn’t stopped Flock from deploying them in cities of all sizes, however. If this isn’t stopped, it won’t be long before rural areas are also equipped with this Orwellian technology.

The company writes on its website:

“IntelliSee transforms passive video surveillance into active threat detection without requiring a single camera replacement. Our AI-powered risk mitigation platform helps you identify threats such as drawn weapons, falls, vehicles, intruders, and much more, enabling your team to take action before it’s too late. Our AI not only detects threats but also prioritizes and contextualizes them in real time using the IntelliSee Risk Matrix.”

Newly launched stress detection sensors automatically alert the police. With these powerful microphones positioned above the city streets, almost nothing goes unheard. Audio captures everything, not just the words you speak, but also the emotions conveyed by your voice. It can even analyse your health and be used to create a dossier on you, including all the places you go and everyone you are with.

This poses a problem for people who expect their conversations to remain private.

The Free Thought Project stated in an article dated December 2, 2025:

“This change represents a new stage in the normalization of mass surveillance. What began as a vehicle tracking program has expanded to monitor free speech. What started as a corporate experiment is now operated as public infrastructure. These systems are being installed in cities and towns with almost no oversight, justified by the terms ‘public safety’ and ‘protecting the community.’ However, their function and purpose extend far beyond that.”

An investigation by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) revealed that Flock’s system was being used by police not only to respond to potential emergencies, but also to monitor protest rallies and other events unrelated to criminal activity.

What’s being set up in these communities where Flock AI video/audio systems are installed is a department for preventative crime. But the so-called crimes are often just normal situations that have been misinterpreted by the technology.

In one incident, described in the following video, a child was shot dead by police officers responding to a false alarm. The police arrived believing they were responding to an emergency, and suddenly a routine situation became dangerous, even deadly.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation reports:

“In October 2025, Flock announced plans to expand its gunshot detection microphones to also detect ‘human distress calls’ such as screams. This dangerous expansion transforms audio sensors into powerful surveillance tools that monitor human voices on city streets. High-powered microphones positioned over densely populated areas raise serious questions regarding wiretapping laws, false alarms, and potentially dangerous police interventions in non-emergency situations. After the EFF exposed this capability, Flock quietly changed its marketing materials to remove explicit references to ‘screams’ – replacing them with more vague language about detecting ‘emergency situations’ – while the company continued to develop and deploy the technology.”

Most states have anti-wiring or wiretapping laws that require all parties to give their consent before their conversations can be recorded. In the case of Flock’s technology, the government isn’t part of your conversation, yet it’s recording you anyway. Someone needs to take Flock to court and challenge its right to eavesdrop on conversations in public spaces where people have a reasonable expectation of privacy in their communications. Otherwise, a company like this will continue to operate unchecked. How long will it be before they’re recording your conversations and behaviour on your porch or even inside your home?

Wait a minute, a company is already doing that! It’s called Ring Doorbell and it belongs to Amazon.

In the following video, James Li talks about this sneaky new technology that Ring boasted about in a Super Bowl advertisement.

Americans and the world need to start standing up to these companies. Stop inviting them onto your property and into your homes. Stop buying cars that spy on you with multiple cameras. Baby monitors that record voices in your homes. Smart TVs that spy on you. And phones that track you. All of this is part of a matrix designed to track and control everyone, herding them like cattle into AI algorithms that dictate their lives.

And if your city is partnering with Flock, it might be time to let them know that you don’t agree.

Either that, or you submit to the deterrent effect this technology has on freedom of expression and movement.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation came to the following conclusion:

“In June, the EFF explained why Flock Safety’s announced feature updates cannot make ALPRs secure. In response to public pressure, the company promised privacy-enhancing features such as geofencing and retention periods. But these improvements do not address the core issue: Flock’s business model relies on building a nationwide, interconnected surveillance network, creating risks that no software update can eliminate. Our research from 2025 has shown that abuses stem from the architecture itself, not just from how individual agencies use the technology.”

It should also be remembered that Flock is not the only private company that benefits from governments’ insatiable hunger for more personal data of their citizens.

Other important players in North America include Motorola Solutions, Amazon, Genetec, Rekor (OpenALPR), Verkada, Palantir, Axon and Digital Ally.

 

yogaesoteric
February 23, 2026