Florida Man Says NO to Flock Camera...Gets Creative
The short version: A 77-year-old St. Petersburg man blocked a Flock camera with a pool skimmer and a sign, turning a quiet protest into a viral lesson on everyday surveillance resistance.
Our Take
Credit to The Alliance for Secure AI for capturing this one: a 77-year-old man named Carl Gunn looked up, saw an ALPR camera logging every car that passed his street, and decided the pole wasn't getting a clean shot on his watch. No lawsuit, no city council testimony — just a camping chair, a pool skimmer, and a handmade sign reading "DOWN WITH FLOCK CAMERAS." It's funny, but it's also exactly the kind of grassroots pushback these systems rely on nobody noticing.
That's the real story here. Flock Safety cameras get installed quietly, often without a public vote or any real community debate, and most residents have no idea their daily movements are being logged into a searchable database shared across agencies. Carl noticed. Most people driving past that pole never will. The fact that one retiree with a pool accessory can generate more public awareness than most city council meetings on this topic says a lot about how little transparency surrounds these installations.
You don't need a pool skimmer to push back. Check our camera map to see what's already watching your neighborhood, and head to our take-action page for ways to raise this with your local government before it's normalized as background noise.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of The Alliance for Secure AI, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.