Is he the Flock father now?
The short version: A Darth Vader cosplayer's satirical takedown of Flock ALPRs at a San Diego City Council meeting lands harder than most policy testimony because the joke is basically the truth.
Our Take
Credit to Cybernews for capturing this one, because sometimes satire cuts closer to the truth than a stack of policy briefs. A guy in a Darth Vader costume standing before San Diego's Public Safety Committee, cheerfully "endorsing" Flock cameras to hunt rebels and track Luke Skywalker, is funny precisely because it's not far off from how these systems actually get used. Swap "rebel scum" for protesters, immigrants, or ex-partners, and the joke becomes a documented pattern of ALPR abuse by real law enforcement officers who've used plate-reader access to stalk people they knew personally.
That's the line that should stick with viewers: the bit about using the tech to track an ex-girlfriend isn't just a punchline, it's a callback to actual misuse cases that have surfaced around the country. Flock and departments that deploy it love to talk about stolen cars and Amber Alerts, but the infrastructure doesn't care about intent — once a camera network blankets a city, it can be pointed at anyone, for any reason, by anyone with login credentials. A costume and a lightsaber prop made that point at a city council meeting better than most sober testimony does.
If you want to see how much of this infrastructure has already been built out near you, check our camera map, and if San Diego's meeting inspired you to show up at your own council session, our take-action guide has what you need to get started.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of Cybernews, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.