San Diego resident dressed as Darth Vader pushes back over Flock Cameras at public hearing

Our Take

Credit to CBS 8 San Diego for capturing this one, because sometimes the most effective way to make a point about surveillance overreach is to lean into the absurdity of it all. A resident showing up to a public safety committee meeting dressed as Darth Vader to talk about license plate readers sounds like a stunt, but it's also a pretty sharp bit of political theater — the Empire watches everyone, all the time, and nobody consented to it. That's basically the pitch Flock Safety makes to city councils, minus the cape.

Public hearings are where these camera networks get rubber-stamped or slowed down, and most of the time they sail through because the rooms are empty and the pushback is quiet. When someone forces the issue in a way that gets covered by local news, it means more people in that community are going to ask questions before their city writes another check to Flock. That's the whole game: friction, visibility, and elected officials having to explain themselves on camera instead of in a consent-agenda footnote.

If you want to know whether your own neighborhood already has these cameras logging every car that passes, check our map, and if you're ready to push back at your own council meeting, costume optional, our take-action page has what you need to get started.