Darth Vader Crashes San Diego City Council Meeting Over Flock Cameras
The short version: A Darth Vader-costumed speaker used satire to blast San Diego's Flock ALPR program at a city council meeting, and even OAN found it newsworthy.
Our Take
When public comment starts featuring guys in Darth Vader costumes warning about a surveillance empire, you know a city's ALPR rollout has hit a nerve. Credit to Chris Cella and Chanel Rion for putting a spotlight on this moment from a San Diego City Council meeting — regardless of what network is covering it, the underlying story is the same one we track everywhere: local governments quietly wiring up entire cities with license plate cameras, then acting surprised when residents show up angry.
The costume is a joke. The concern isn't. Flock's network doesn't just catch stolen cars — it builds a searchable, retained record of everywhere your car goes, accessible to police departments and, increasingly, shared across jurisdictions and sometimes federal agencies with far less oversight than most people assume. San Diego is just the latest city council to get an earful about that reality, and it won't be the last. Public comment theatrics get clicks, but the actual fight happens in council chambers, procurement documents, and data-sharing agreements that rarely make it into a five-minute segment.
If you want to know whether your own neighborhood has quietly joined the Flock network, check our camera map — and if you'd rather not wait for someone to dress up as a Sith Lord to make your city listen, our take-action page has real steps for getting this on your council's agenda before the cameras go up, not after.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of One America News Network, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.