Darth Vader speaks in support of Flock cameras at San Diego public safety meeting | NBC4 Washington
The short version: A costumed 'Darth Vader' backing Flock cameras at a San Diego meeting is a funny clip, but it underscores how normalized mass surveillance debates have become.
Our Take
Credit to NBC4 Washington for capturing this moment, because it's the kind of clip that makes you laugh first and think second. A guy in a Darth Vader costume standing up at a San Diego public safety meeting to vouch for Flock Safety's ALPR network is objectively funny. But strip away the costume and what's left is a resident telling a city council that constant automated tracking of every car on every street is something to cheer for, not question.
That's the real story here: these meetings happen in city after city, and they're where the actual decisions about surveillance infrastructure get made, usually with a fraction of the public attention a viral video gets. Most people never show up, never read the vendor contracts, and never find out their plate data is sitting in a national database shared across hundreds of agencies. A costume gets clicks. The underlying vote on whether your neighborhood gets blanketed in license plate cameras does not.
If you want to know whether Flock or similar ALPR systems are already watching your own street, check our camera map, and if you'd rather show up to your city's next public safety meeting with facts instead of a cape, our take-action resources can help you push back.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of NBC4 Washington, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.