Why these Flock camera vandalism suspects have supporters

Our Take

Cardinal & Pine's coverage of a freshly installed Flock Safety camera getting cut down in New Bern — and the local sympathy the suspects are reportedly drawing — captures something we've been tracking for a while: people are fed up with being surveilled without ever being asked. Nobody voted on these cameras. Nobody held a real public hearing before a private company's hardware went up on a pole scanning every plate that passes. When residents quietly root for the person who took it down, that's not an endorsement of vandalism, it's a verdict on the process that put the camera there in the first place.

This is the pattern we see repeated nationwide: a city council approves a Flock contract with minimal debate, framing it as a tool to fight crime, and residents wake up to find a permanent record of their daily movements being built without consent. When people feel shut out of the decision, some will eventually express that anger with a pair of bolt cutters instead of a public comment card. That's not a strategy we endorse, but it's a predictable outcome when transparency is treated as optional.

Credit to Cardinal & Pine for putting a local face on a national story. If you want to see how far this network has spread near you, check our camera map, and if you'd rather push back through your city council than a pair of bolt cutters, our take-action guide can help you do it the legal way.