Flock cameras destroyed in Spartanburg city limits, police say

Our Take

FOX Carolina's report out of Spartanburg is short on details and long on implication: police say two Flock Safety cameras were destroyed, and now there's a criminal investigation. We don't endorse property destruction — it's illegal, and it gives surveillance boosters an easy narrative to dodge the real question: why are these cameras there in the first place, who approved them, and what oversight exists over the data they collect?

That question keeps getting louder because most residents never got a real say. Flock's network has expanded block by block, city by city, often through quiet city council votes or police department contracts with little public debate. When people feel like the only way to register an objection is to take a wrench to a pole, that's a failure of the normal channels — comment periods, council meetings, local reporting — not evidence that the cameras are popular or harmless.

Spartanburg isn't unique. Check our camera map to see how dense this network has become near you, and if you want a lawful way to push back — public records requests, city council testimony, model ordinances — our take action page has the tools. Credit to FOX Carolina for covering the story; we'll be watching to see what the investigation turns up and whether it prompts any real scrutiny of why these cameras are there at all.