About
Who we are.
In April and May of 2026, a group of like-minded residents of El Cerrito got together to create Flock Out El Cerrito — and successfully lobbied the El Cerrito City Council to reject renewing the city's contract with Flock.
Flock Out is a decentralized coalition made up of people from all walks of life and political perspectives. We are parents, therapists, and tech workers. We are retired, working full time, and underemployed. We are fiscally conservative and socially liberal; leftists; and die hard Democrats. The one thing we have in common is an absolute repudiation of any type of mass surveillance dragnet.
We believe that most, if not all, Americans are against any government collecting and collating the data of its citizens. We have already seen the terrible results of such collection — from families pulled out of their vehicles and handcuffed at gun point, to people seeking healthcare being stalked across state lines.
This pledge ensures that other cities in Contra Costa County don't have to start their fight from scratch, and that cities like El Cerrito that have already gotten rid of Flock don't fall prey to other mass surveillance companies. Join us in pushing back on and eventually destroying mass surveillance in Contra Costa County. All local county politicians and candidates for office are encouraged to sign.
How the pledge works
We send the same request to every sitting council member and every declared council candidate in the county. We give a deadline. We publish what comes back, in full, with the date we asked.
If someone signs, they go on the record as a signer. If they respond with a different position, we print their response as they wrote it. If they don't respond before the deadline, we note that.
We don't edit responses, and we don't characterize a position the person didn't take. If we get something wrong, write to us and we'll correct it.
What signing does not mean
Signing the pledge is not an endorsement of a candidate by anyone involved in this project, and it isn't a statement about any other issue. Candidates from any party are welcome to sign.