Why people are chopping down Flock cameras

Our Take

Hard Lens Media is tapping into something real here: a quiet but growing backlash against Flock Safety's ALPR network, expressed in the most direct way possible — people are physically taking these cameras down. We don't endorse vandalism, and we're not going to pretend it's a strategy. But we understand the impulse. When a surveillance system gets installed on a public street with zero community vote, zero transparency about who accesses the data, and zero meaningful opt-out, some people decide the only language that gets heard is a wrench.

That frustration is a direct product of how Flock and the police departments that license its hardware have operated: quietly, quickly, and with minimal public input. Most residents don't know these cameras exist until they stumble across one, and by then it's already logging their plate, their location, and their movement patterns into a database that can be queried by agencies far outside their own town. People don't escalate to cutting down poles when they feel like they have a voice in the process — they escalate when they feel like they don't.

If you'd rather fight this with sunlight instead of saws, there are better tools. Check our camera map to see what's been deployed near you, and head to our take-action page for ways to push back through city council meetings, public records requests, and organizing — the stuff that actually changes policy instead of just replacing hardware.