Survey finds more Americans oppose police license-plate cameras than support them

The growing backlash against surveillance companies like Flock may have reached a tipping point. According to the new YouGov survey, shared exclusively with The Washington Post, 46% of respondents opposed the company’s surveillance cameras in their communities, while 38% supported them. That marks a reversal from last year, when a majority of respondents said they favored the cameras. The survey also found that more respondents said the surveillance would not make them feel any safer.

Flock is one of the more visible surveillance companies, operating more than 120,000 license plate readers across the U.S. that can track vehicles’ whereabouts. The company has been embroiled in controversy following reports of police abusing the cameras’ surveillance capabilities, which has led dozens of U.S. communities to reject Flock’s cameras or cancel their contracts amid privacy concerns.

When reached by TechCrunch, Flock claimed there is wide support for its surveillance technology, but acknowledged that “support isn’t unconditional,” pointing to the rollout of its recent safeguards. Critics, including the ACLU, have said the company’s new safeguards amount to little, and that Flock remains a major threat to civil liberties. Amid the intensifying backlash, Flock CEO Garrett Langley last week called for a “compromise” between surveillance and privacy, following a rise in vandalism targeting Flock cameras.

Why it matters

A year-over-year swing from majority support to majority opposition suggests police surveillance vendors are losing the public argument even as their camera networks keep expanding, setting up more local fights over contracts.