Quote · The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Can OpenAI and Anthropic Justify Their Valuations? + Flock, Privacy, and Plummeting Crime
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Q3: Flock Cameras, Privacy, and Plummeting Crime
At 21:20 · chapter starts 18:29
James's question about Flock cameras prompts a structured, data-heavy segment. Scott opens with historical context: DHS distributed over $50 million in grants for ALPR systems between 2007 and 2012, and a third of large police agencies were already using them by 2010. Today Flock operates 120,000 cameras under contract with 7,000+ organizations, roughly 40% of US law enforcement. [1] — Scott Galloway "Every mayor is bragging about record-low crime, and most of them have nothing to do with it. License plate surveillance is making crime har…" 22:55 Scott acknowledges documented misuse — a Texas sheriff running a nationwide lookup to track a woman who had an abortion, an Indianapolis officer surveilling his own wife 4,000 times over 10 months — and notes that over 100 governments have already ended Flock contracts. But his overall position is strongly pro-Flock with conditions: the technology is neutral; the failure is institutional. HIPAA is held up as a model for stringent data-access controls. [2] — Scott Galloway "Nobody really distrusts Flock. They distrust the government agencies controlling the data. The technology is neutral; the problem is the ab…" 20:40 He then pivots to the upside that critics miss: crime is at historic lows across the US — in New York, in California — and he attributes it directly to surveillance making crime harder to commit undetected. The segment closes with a Russia comparison: Russia errs entirely toward security over privacy; America should err toward privacy while using these tools under strict legal safeguards.
More than 7,000 organizations in the US have contracts with Flock, covering roughly 40% of US law enforcement, and the company operates roughly 120,000 cameras nationwide.
Flock's founder claimed the company's license plate cameras helped solve more than a million crimes in the past year across the US.
Nobody really distrusts Flock. They distrust the government agencies controlling the data. The technology is neutral; the problem is the absence of laws strong enough to prevent misuse — from tracking abortion seekers to surveilling a cop's own wife.
Every mayor is bragging about record-low crime, and most of them have nothing to do with it. License plate surveillance is making crime harder to get away with, and the data shows it's working — from New York to California.
