Shh...Your city is recording your conversations: Flock’s new AI-powered audio sensors quietly installed in thousands of communities nationwide

'The shift represents a new stage in the normalization of mass monitoring.'

NOTE: If you appreciate honest, independent journalism not tied to corporate or state power, please consider upgrading to a paid subscription or making a one-time or occasional donation at my GiveSendGo. If you prefer snail mail, checks may be sent c/o Leo Hohmann, P.O. Box 291, Newnan, GA 30264. Thank you.

What began nearly a decade ago as a program to track vehicle license plates has evolved into the mass surveillance of all human movement and even our conversations across a wide swath of America.

Flock Safety, a private surveillance company based in Atlanta, deploys its Automated License-Plate Readers as part of a public-private partnership in upwards of 6,000 communities nationwide. With little to no coverage in the mainstream media, Flock’s cameras were “upgraded” in October 2025 with AI-powered Raven Acoustic Sensors capable of picking up human voices.

The system was at first marketed toward the detection of gunshots, but then the speakers became sensitive enough to pick up human c…