Dr. Jon Padfield digs 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.
