Recent Monterey County vandalism puts Flock cameras under renewed scrutiny

Our Take

Credit to KSBW Action News 8 for keeping a spotlight on Monterey County's Flock camera controversy. When people start taking a wrench or spray paint to these poles instead of writing a polite email to their city council, that's not random mischief — it's a signal that a lot of residents feel like they were never actually asked whether they wanted a network of always-on license plate readers logging their movements. Vandalism isn't a strategy we endorse, but it's a symptom worth paying attention to.

Flock cameras get sold to city councils as a quiet, low-controversy tool for catching stolen cars and hit-and-run drivers. What rarely gets mentioned in the sales pitch is that every plate, on every car, gets logged and stored regardless of suspicion — creating a searchable record of where you drive, when, and how often. That data doesn't stay perfectly contained either; it gets shared across jurisdictions and, in some documented cases, accessed well outside its original stated purpose. Renewed scrutiny is exactly what these systems deserve, whether it's sparked by a viral video, a city council meeting, or someone's frustration boiling over.

If you're in Monterey County or anywhere else wondering whether these cameras have shown up on your own street, check our camera map to see what's already been documented nearby, and if you want to push back through legitimate channels, our take-action page has steps for engaging your local government before frustration turns into headlines like this one.