Amid intense backlash, people are vandalizing Flock surveillance cameras

Resistance to police surveillance tech like Flock cameras grows In dozens of states around the country, individuals are vandalizing, blocking and taking down Flock cameras.

Key points

• A vandalized Flock camera near Washington Avenue and Westcott is photographed in Houston, July 7, 2026.
• And sometimes, the data is wrong: A 2024 analysis by a police department in California discovered Flock misread license plates in 71% of the alerts it sent to police.
• "There's no question that license plate readers can be very helpful tools for law enforcement, " notes Jeff Potts, executive director of the Minnesota Chiefs of Police Association.
• Brady O'Rourke in Crystal, Minn., holds a sign he created to block the view of a Flock camera.
• According to DeFlock, at least 100 cities have deactivated the cameras or canceled contracts with Flock or similar firms.

Brady O'Rourke in Crystal, Minn., holds a sign he created to block the view of a Flock camera. It tracks vehicles driving along the road. It's one of a number of actions Americans are taking to oppose this police surveillance technology. Meg Anderson/NPR hide caption.

Meanwhile, a few times a week, Brady O'Rourke walks to the busiest street near his house in Crystal, Minn., carrying a sizeable metal pole with a bright yellow sign taped to the end.

It's a roof rake, normally applied to scrape snow off a house, but O'Rourke has different aims for this one. At the intersection, he stops at a Flock camera, an automated license plate reader that police employ to track vehicles.

Normally, this camera records everyone who drives down this street. But not right now: O'Rourke lifts his rake into the air and blocks the camera with his sign. He waves at passing cars. Some drivers smile and wave back. Meanwhile, a few individuals honk their horns.

"I don't want to pay to be surveilled, " O'Rourke notes. "My tax dollars are funding cameras at the end of my block. I don't want to live like that. I don't think anybody should have to live like that."

O'Rourke, inspired by a man in Florida who applied a pool skimmer to do the same thing, is part of a growing movement against automated license plate readers like Flock.

This week, Flock Safety, the Atlanta-based maker of the cameras, held its annual conference against the backdrop of intense backlash.

According to the firm, more than 5, 000 law enforcement agencies apply their technology. More broadly, there are more than 130, 000 AI-powered automated license plate readers on American streets, according to DeFlock, an advocacy group that tracks the cameras.

For context, a Flock license plate reader is seen along a public road, Oct. 16, 2025, in Houston. David Goldman/AP hide caption.

Every month, those cameras capture billions of license plates and other details regarding cars, including makes, models, colors and any alterations. That allows police to see where drivers have been over time.

When we go to and from work, where we go to the doctor, where we drop our kid off at daycare, "They monitor, quite simply. What we've enabled in practical reality is law enforcement to go back and look at where any of us was at any given point in time, " notes Clare Garvie, deputy director of technology law and policy at New York University's Policing Project. Privacy advocates call on Maryland to investigate data brokers.

Police leaders say Flock cameras support them locate stolen vehicles and missing residents, and a recent preliminary study suggests that Flock Cameras can deter car theft.

But the expansion of the technology – combined with advancements in AI and the centralization of data in cloud networks – has rose the risk of abuse, states Jay Stanley, senior policy analyst with the Speech, Privacy and Technology Project at the ACLU.

And the technology has been misused: Some police officers, for instance, have applied it to stalk ex-partners, or accessed the data for immigration enforcement purposes without a local government's consent. A sheriff's office in Texas applied it to track a woman who may have had an abortion.

"The potential for police fishing expeditions is unlimited, " notes Stanley. "What a lot of these AI, major data techniques do is they try to boil the ocean, to reduce enormous amounts of data down to various individuals who they think could be involved. The difficulty with that, of course, is it sweeps up potentially enormous numbers of innocent residents." She protested ICE raids. Then agents indicated up at her door.

Meanwhile, the indiscriminate nature of the data collection, Garvie notes, additionally raises reservations that the cameras violate the Fourth Amendment. It protects residents from being searched unreasonably.

"We did not set up a system of governance in this country that says, 'Just don't do anything wrong and you won't have anything to worry about.' What we said is, 'No, actually, law enforcement is affirmatively restricted against getting up in our business as we go about our daily lives, '" she notes.

Garvie notes she wants to see more oversight of the technology from lawmakers.

Last week, Flock changed some of its features to support prevent abuse, including shortening how long it recommends data be stored and cutting off access to officers who appear to be misusing the tool.

"We are so transparent regarding the business. We don't own this data. We don't sell this data. Cities have control over how long it's stored. And who it's shared with, " Garrett Langley, the CEO of Flock, informed NPR. Private prisons announce $1.4 billion in revenue as immigration detentions climb. Flock camera vandalism throughout dozens of states.

Notably, an increasing number of individuals are combating the technology in both legal and illegal ways. According to an NPR review of local news reports, Flock cameras have been vandalized in at least 36 states.

Individuals have stolen the cameras, sawed them down, crashed into them with cars, covered them in paint and stickers, and shot at them.

Meanwhile, a vandalized Flock camera near Washington Avenue and Westcott is photographed in Houston, July 7, 2026. Raquel Natalicchio/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images hide caption. Raquel Natalicchio/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images.

Social media is filled with tongue-in-cheek how-to videos, instructing viewers on things like how to discretely saw through a metal pole.

Notably, the comments on Facebook posts from local news stations regarding the vandalism are rife with snark: "Not all heroes wear capes, " one commenter wrote.

"These are individuals being amped up to go do something. And I don't think they're being given the level of information they should that they're additionally committing a felony, " Langley states.

Langley notes if residents have reservations with his company's technology, they should take it up with their city council.

And plenty of residents have. According to DeFlock, at least 100 cities have deactivated the cameras or canceled contracts with Flock or similar firms.

Stanley, of the ACLU, notes there's a deep well of dislike in the U.S. For the notion of being surveilled by the administration.

"We're seeing opposition from the left. We're seeing opposition from MAGA Republicans. We're seeing opposition from mainstream Republicans, from centrists. And so it really is a nonpartisan matter, " he states. "This grassroots uprising is just really remarkable. At the end of the day, it's not like anything I've seen in my 20 plus years as a privacy advocate."

Organizers with DeFlock are holding a National Week of Action through Saturday. They say more than 25, 000 individuals are registered for events around the country – things like protests and education sessions – which offer residents a legal way to employ their voice.

For now, amid intense backlash, people are vandalizing Flock surveillance cameras remains the part of the story worth watching, and further updates are likely as more details are confirmed.