‘Flock off!’ Fighting mass surveillance with Aaron Fernando and Chad Marlow

On March 4, 2026, the Ithaca Common Council in Ithaca, New York, U.S., voted to non-renew its contract with Flock Safety. Flock, among other things, is a vendor of fixed-location automated license plate reader (ALPR) systems.

You may have seen them pop up in your city or county in the past couple of years, as they have become a popular surveillance tool for many law enforcement agencies.

And while Flock claims the primary purpose of its network of tens of thousands of AI-powered cameras is to find people who have committed criminalized acts, it is tracking everyone without a warrant on a massive scale.

The implications of this level of mass surveillance are only starting to be fully understood. But, when people learn what is happening, the backlash is fierce. Local coalitions have been successful in convincing their government officials to tell them to ‘Flock Off’! 

On this episode of The Response, we’ll discuss what makes this technology especially troublesome, how communities have responded, and what you can do to Get the Flock Out.

Host Tom Llewellyn is joined by Shareable’s Aaron Fernando, who recently co-led the campaign in Ithaca, and Chad Marlow, a senior policy counsel at the ACLU who directs both the nationwide #TakeCTRL and Community Control Over Police Surveillance (CCOPS) campaigns.

We’re also in the process of evaluating what to do with this show. If you enjoy the show and feel like it’s a valuable contribution, please let us know by leaving a comment on Shareable’s social posts or leaving a review on Apple, Spotify, etc. Or send an email to theresponse@shareable.net.

We appreciate you tuning in.

About the guests

Aaron Fernando recently co-led the campaign in Ithaca and is Shareable’s Cooperative Organizer, working to support a Just Transition for electric cooperatives and the rural communities they serve. He is also an independent journalist covering grassroots movements and solidarity economy projects, with a focus on land, policy, housing, and cooperative movements and has written for The Nation, Truthout, Shelterforce, In These Times, and others. His broader organizing work is focused on housing justice. Aaron can be found on a co-operative instance of Mastodon at @00Aaron@social.coop.

Chad Marlow is a senior policy counsel at the ACLU, where he principally focuses on privacy, surveillance, and technology issues. His field-leading policy and advocacy work has frequently been the subject of national and international media coverage and critical acclaim. He is the author of over 20 ACLU model bills, is the primary author of the ACLU’s groundbreaking “Digital Dystopia” report on student surveillance, has published dozens of influential ACLU blogs and op-eds, and directs both the ACLU’s nationwide #TakeCTRL and Community Control Over Police Surveillance (CCOPS) campaigns.

Resources

• https://www.shareable.net/toolkit/library-of-things/ 
• https://www.shareable.net/donate/ 
• https://www.shareable.net/navigating-conflict-in-movement-spaces/
• https://www.shareable.net/as-state-and-corporate-surveillance-intensifies-a-new-guide-aims-to-help-mutual-aid-organizations-protect-themselves/
• Chad Marlow
• https://www.aclu.org/affiliates 
• Community Control Over Police Surveillance (CCOPS)
• Atlas of Surveillance
• Flock Misuse Fact Sheet
• Ithaca, NY City Council Ordinance

Episode credits

• Hosted and executive produced by Tom Llewellyn
• Produced by Aaron Fernando and Paige Kelly
• Edited by Tom Llewellyn with Paige Kelly
• Theme Music by Cultivate Beats