Flock: Artificial Intelligence to Track Your Every Move
The federal government is using AI as surveillance for ICE
without the proper warrants — or any awareness of those surveilled
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🖋 Anastasia Garcia
Anastasia Garcia holds a Master of Arts in English Literature from San Francisco State University. She is a current PhD student at Washington State University studying the impact of genocide on literature, with a special interest in Native American Literature and Jewish Literature.
Course — AI, Biopolitics & Engineered Oppression
Published — 14 May 2026
Institution — Washington State University
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The Surveillance State
The federal government is using AI as surveillance for ICE without the proper warrants or any one being surveilled being aware. The federal government is militarizing Artificial Intelligence in order to harm citizens under that guise of protecting America. Facial recognition combined with Artificial Intelligence is a deadly combination. The use of Flock cameras by the federal government is causing irreversible harm on the streets of America.
The Panopticon Economy
There is not just one person or company that built the AI that is being used today. All of the tech sector has their hands in Artificial Intelligence and are vying for government contracts. With that said, the government is benefitting by having a panopticon paid for by individual cities. Not only is Flock complicit in the violence taking place on the streets of America, but they are making money off of the deaths and arrests of innocent people. We are seeing minorities, criminals and "others" being targeted by the Federal government with AI and Flock cameras.
From Slave Catchers to ICE
While people want to make a connection between ICE agents and the Gestapo, the real connection to be made is between ICE agents and Slave Catchers. ICE agents represent a truly American harm. People want to push the blame onto the Nazi regime from World War II and say this is not a problem America has ever had before, but the statement is simply not true.
Executive Orders & Active Tracking
The Trump Administration has issued Executive Orders to promote the inclusion of Artificial Intelligence in the Federal Government. Protestors are being tracked currently by AI and Flock cameras with ICE agents telling them facial recognition is tracking them. These are real concerns people are facing daily. Flock surveillance is happening in real time and coming to a peak.
The New Jim Code
Flock cameras have an inherent racial bias because they are produced using the same Artificial Intelligence that is already causing problems throughout the United States. These issues go back to issues as simple as sensors failing to recognize darker skin tones to the extremes of AI cameras seeing danger when there is a black or brown person setting up a deadly situation (Dykos and Pryor). The idea of racist technology circles back to "The New Jim Code".
Explaining how we have come to the point that cameras interpret black children with chip bags as aggressors with guns. Racial bias is ingrained in the codes because racial bias is inherent in the people who write the codes. Without representation in tech-companies or as product testers there is no one around to point out these biases.
The Mountain View Case
ICE is using Flock cameras to detain people with a panopticon built by an amalgamation of people. Instead of relying on one person to install cameras to track people, cameras are installed and a back door is opened by the company for other agencies to use the data. California is often thought of as a liberal haven, but that is not the case.
A local newscast spread the information about Flock cameras in Mountain View, California being accessed by the Federal Government. The city of Mountain View who installed and paid for the cameras did not give permission for anyone outside city officials to access the cameras.
There is no way to trust a surveillance company who promises to not keep information private. The government is using cameras paid for by other people — other law enforcement agencies — to surveil private citizens in hopes of finding people they view as criminals. When law enforcement agencies start turning on each other, private citizens begin to understand how disastrous Artificial Intelligence is to everyday people.
▶ Video: Mountain View — youtube.com/watch?v=d4dIe7MXFGQDHS & ICE AI Network
The American Immigration Council explains how DHS and ICE are using AI to track and find people to deport and/or arrest. In the explanation DHS gave on their AI usage they make it appear that they are pulling back from AI use, but they are just getting smarter with how they explain their use. By saying one name DHS can actually use an application for multiple reasons like facial recognition, ID scanning, and text analysis (Hubbard).
Resistance Strategies
This project will show how Flock cameras are being used to surveil everyday citizens. Through the use of dismantling cameras, wearing clothes that block AI from recognizing people, and investing in ID guard glasses lenses people can resist the technoauthoritarianism taking over the United States.
The Government is Always Watching
The government is always watching, now more than ever. The installation of Flock Cameras throughout the United States is a play from the government to use Artificial Intelligence to track everyday citizens as though they are criminals. A target has been put on the backs of ordinary citizens based on how they look. Flock cameras and the integration of Artificial Intelligence into policing is causing irreversible harm on the streets of America.
Absolute Power Regardless of Law
The federal government is using AI as surveillance for ICE without the proper warrants or any one being surveilled being aware. The federal government is militarizing Artificial Intelligence in order to harm citizens under that guise of protecting America. Facial recognition combined with Artificial Intelligence is a deadly combination. There is not just one person or company that built the AI that is being used today. All of the tech sector has their hands in Artificial Intelligence and are vying for government contracts. With that said, the government is benefitting by having a panopticon paid for by individual cities. Not only is Flock complicit in the violence taking place on the streets of America, but they are making money off of the deaths and arrests of innocent people. We are seeing minorities, criminals and "others" being targeted by the Federal government with AI and Flock cameras.
Facial recognition works less for people of color but ICE is targeting people of color so how is AI facial recognition supposed to be working?
Have I Been Flocked?
We must be aware of Flock. Now you can look up if you have been searched in the Flock database using haveibeenflocked.com giving people the opportunity to resist through knowledge.
> ENTER LICENSE PLATE TO QUERY
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Knowledge is the first act of resistance. Know if you are in their system.
DOGE & ImmigrationOS
Irna Landrum — TechPolicy.Press
techpolicy.press — How ICE Uses AI to Automate AuthoritarianismICE is also using AI to automate authoritarianism by expanding repression. Without technology, ICE is targeting dissidents like Renee Good or Alex Pretti outright: an explicit act of repression intended to chill dissent.
Surveillance at Protests
Brian Martucci — Minnesota Reformer
minnesotareformer.com — How ICE Is Watching YouPeople are having their Global Entry taken away based off of ICE facial recognition body cameras worn at protests and simply seeing observers.
People have begun destroying Flock cameras as city governments refuse to take the cameras down. People are resisting surveillance through physical means. When cities will not hear their concerns they are taking matters into their own hands.
Zach Whittaker — TechCrunch: Americans Are Destroying Flock Surveillance CamerasCounter-Surveillance Tools
Technology can be turned against the surveillance state. Know your tools.