Flock cameras capture a complete vehicle fingerprint and use neural networks to identify and track people. Flock’s system can generate “heat maps” charting a vehicle’s movements for 30 days, which can be used to reconstruct a person’s movements, associations, and habits. Flock’s Nationwide Data Sharing allows police in one state to track vehicles in another without probable cause. Flock cameras have been under much public scrutiny lately, and many have been destroyed. But Flock isn’t the only private company helping to build a mass surveillance state. 

A Company called, Axon, launched a clip-on streetlight camera called the “Axon Lightpost” in 2025. The device is powered by the streetlight’s socket and is designed to be installed on existing streetlights “in under an hour.” Axon terminated its partnership with Flock Safety in January 2023, which was seen as a strategic move to compete with Flock, but Axon is also less noticeable than Flock and much more difficult to destroy.

The Fourth Amendment requires a detailed warrant with probable cause. But these new surveillance programs are collecting data on everyone without any suspicion, and are in direct violation of the Fourth Amendment. Privacy is foundational to liberty. It is an “area within which the individual is free from interference and able to do and think whatever he chooses.” Without private space, individuals cannot develop their own thoughts, or make independent decisions. Privacy ensures the government must rely on the consent of the governed rather than predictive surveillance. Privacy shields individuals from arbitrary interference by the state. And the loss of privacy creates a relationship of domination. Privacy allows for the “mistakes, embarrassments, and false starts” that are part of human life without permanent public record. Modern surveillance systems that make every aspect of public life permanent, searchable, and trackable, are fundamentally incompatible with the freedoms outlined in the US Constitution. 

The transition from Flock to Axon is already happening rapidly on a local level. The Axon Lightpost is designed to plug directly into the existing sockets of standard streetlights within minutes. Most U.S. police forces already use Axon body cameras, Axon fleet dashcams, and Axon Tasers. Axon is now adding the Lightpost surveilance tech into their existing software, Axon Fusus, which is already used by most police departments. 

Axon Enterprise recently acquire Carbyne, an Israeli-founded emergency call management and 911 AI mapping platform. Carbyne’s platform is being merged with Axon’s ecosystem to power Axon 911, which is already deployed in 49 U.S. states. Axon 911 feeds directly into Axon Evidence, which is already used by over 500,000 law enforcement officers across the United States. 

While Carbyne is now owned by Axon Enterprise, Axon has maintained Carbyne’s development center in Tel Aviv, where roughly 80 Israeli engineers continue to code and build the software’s infrastructure. 

Section 219 in the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) establishes the “United States-Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative,” which will deeply integrate Israeli technologies, including AI, cyber, and autonomous systems, into U.S. defense procurement. Because Axon is an American company operating an R&D lab in Tel Aviv, the passing of this bill would make it easier for Axon to pursue federal U.S. military contracts using technology built by its Israeli engineers. 

By permanently embedding Israeli-designed software, quantum computing frameworks, and AI systems into the bedrock of the U.S. military, the U.S. becomes structurally dependent on a foreign power for its own defense. The “United States-Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative” in the 2027 NDAA is designed to “lock in” these technological partnerships. If a future U.S. President or Congress wanted to halt military aid to Israel due to human rights abuses or policy disagreements, doing so would become incredibly difficult because the U.S. military’s own systems would be codependent on Israeli code and components.

https://gregreese.substack.com/p/flock-axon-israel-and-american-freedom?publication_id=706779&post_id=207037910&r=1z4haj&triedRedirect=true&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email