From the lantern laws of colonial New York to the COINTELPRO surveillance of the civil rights movement, monitoring and controlling Black movement has never been accidental. It has been policy.

Today that policy has a new name. Surveillance in Atlanta is not random. Atlanta is the most surveilled city in the united states. Flock Safety cameras capture your license plate, location, and timestamp every time you pass a camera. There are over 5,000 Flock Safety cameras in the metro-area. During racial justice protests in 2020, over 50 law enforcement agencies ran Flock searches tied to demonstrators. Most recently, a young man whose an Army vet and Clark Atlanta PHD student was stuck in jail for 30 days because a Flock camera put his car near a 2023 road rage crime he didn’t commit. The charges were dropped and he’s suing the city.

On October 18, the ACLU of Georgia and Red, Bike, and Green invite you to ride through it.

The Tour de Flock is a community cycling ride through some of Atlanta's historically Black neighborhoods where surveillance infrastructure is densest and the history of over-policing runs deepest. We ride not just to see it, but to name it, and to demand that Atlanta City Council pass a surveillance ordinance that includes City Council oversight and gives communities a say in whether and how this technology is used in our neighborhoods.

All levels welcome. All are welcome to ride.

Staging: 11:30 a.m.

Rollout: 12:00 p.m.

Finish: 2:00 p.m.