AMERICANS ACROSS THE COUNTRY ARE TEARING DOWN FLOCK SURVEILLANCE CAMERAS

Our Take

Credit to Devin for pulling together a trend that's been bubbling up in local news and social media for months: people cutting down, spray-painting, or otherwise disabling Flock Safety cameras in their neighborhoods. We don't endorse vandalism or property destruction — it carries real legal risk for the people doing it and doesn't address the underlying policy failure — but we understand exactly why frustration is boiling over. These cameras went up in thousands of towns with little public debate, no meaningful opt-out, and often no clear answer to basic questions like who can access the footage, how long it's kept, or whether ICE and other federal agencies are tapping into it.

When people feel like the normal channels — city council meetings, public comment periods, records requests — go nowhere, some will eventually take matters into their own hands. That's not a defense of the tactic, it's a warning sign for local governments and Flock itself: communities are telling you they didn't consent to being tracked block by block, and ignoring that anger doesn't make it go away. The sustainable fix isn't a bolt cutter, it's transparency, audits, and elected officials willing to say no to these contracts or attach real guardrails when they don't.

If you want to know whether there's a camera near you before it becomes a flashpoint, check our camera map, and if you'd rather fight this in public meetings and open-records requests than in the dark, our take-action page has the tools to start.