Surveillance, Power & the God Complex: Why Flock Safety Should Concern You

I’m Dr. Jon Padfield and in this video we’re digging into a disturbing trend: when surveillance companies begin to cosplay God.

We examine the case of Flock Safety — a company now operating tens of thousands of AI-powered license-plate and surveillance cameras across the U.S. — and ask: what happens when the CEO’s vision of “eliminating all crime” combines with real-world misuse of that technology?

We’ll review public statements from Flock’s CEO Garrett Langley, misuse cases involving a police sergeant, police chiefs, and license-plate reader networks, and explore the psychological concept of a “God Complex.” While not a formal psychiatric diagnosis, it’s a useful lens to understand how power, surveillance, control and narcissism intersect.

💬 What do you think? Can mass surveillance ever be ethical? Or is the very structure of “widespread monitoring” a threat to freedom? Drop your thoughts below.

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The use of any copyrighted material in this video is done so for educational and informational purposes only including parody, commentary and criticism. See Hosseinzadeh v. Klein, 276 F.Supp.3d 34 (S.D.N.Y. 2017); Equals Three, LLC v. Jukin Media, Inc., 139 F. Supp. 3d 1094 (C.D. Cal. 2015). It is believed that this constitutes a "fair use" of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law.
- Written by Dr. Steve Turley but applicable to Business Reform as well.

🔗 Sources cited in this video...
https://www.actionnewsjax.com/news/investigates/investigates-some-local-license-plate-readers-do-not-comply-with-florida-law/M3D7EVI42JHVTOR4NG4TFYHJWQ/
https://www.kgw.com/article/news/local/technology/wsdot-orders-flock-safety-cameras-removed/283-061bbad5-64b0-4990-bbd4-1faaee467e13
https://www.keranews.org/government/2024-10-09/surveillance-company-skirted-regulations-as-it-expanded-across-north-fort-worth-hoas
https://qz.com/flock-ai-license-plate-surveillance-startup-cameras-per-1851294024
https://www.techdirt.com/2024/03/05/alpr-maker-flock-broke-laws-repeatedly-while-installing-cameras-courting-cop-shops/
https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2024/02/27/flock-safety-surveillance-broke-state-law/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVCVQcd9PLc&t=322s
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/ai-startup-says-it-will-end-crime-by-blanketing-the-entire-united-states-in-ever-watching-spy-cameras/ar-AA1LTr8w
https://dictionary.apa.org/jehovah-complex
https://dictionary.apa.org/megalomania
https://coloradosun.com/2025/10/28/flock-camera-police-colorado-columbine-valley/
https://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/narcissistic-personality-disorder-symptoms-diagnosis-and-treatments
https://www.facebook.com/eff/posts/deflockme-a-website-fighting-against-automated-license-plate-readers-received-a-/1046734927481064/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMQ8d3PjF8E
https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2025/09/03/ai-startup-flock-thinks-it-can-eliminate-all-crime-in-america/
https://ij.org/press-release/judge-rules-lawsuit-challenging-norfolks-use-of-flock-cameras-can-proceed/
https://atlpresscollective.com/2025/06/01/flock-safety-surveillance/
https://deflock.me/about
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https://www.404media.co/flock-threatens-open-source-developer-mapping-its-surveillance-cameras/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzVfXvTQnEQ
https://www.oakpark.com/2025/08/28/state-says-flock-safety-broke-the-law/
https://capitolnewsillinois.com/news/hundreds-of-police-departments-use-camera-company-accused-of-breaking-state-law/
https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/company-violated-illinois-law-by-sharing-license-plate-data-with-customs-and-border-protection-giannoulias/3814914/
https://wisconsinexaminer.com/2025/08/06/analysis-of-flock-use-by-wisconsin-cops-reveals-trends-raises-questions/
https://abc30.com/post/flock-safety-license-plate-camera-company-halts-cooperation-federal-agencies-among-investigation-concerns-including-il/17653876/
https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2021/10/25/are-narcissistic-ceos-all-that-bad/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22774705/
https://www.whro.org/virginia-center-for-investigative-journalism/2025-07-03/vcij
https://www.jalopnik.com/license-plate-surveillance-startup-broke-the-law-while-1851289764/
https://www.dailycommercial.com/story/news/local/2021/10/12/new-lake-ordinance-bans-surveillance-cameras-county-property/6101260001/
https://insider.govtech.com/texas/news/department-of-public-safety-puts-flock-safety-on-notice
https://www.govtech.com/public-safety/north-carolina-judge-halts-alpr-deployment-over-licensing
https://theintercept.com/2021/01/30/lapd-palantir-data-driven-policing/
https://information.auditor.ca.gov/pdfs/reports/2019-118.pdf