JCC Flock surveillance cameras vandalized

Our Take

WAVY TV 10's report out of James City County is the latest sign that patience with these cameras is wearing thin in communities that never got a real vote on whether they wanted them watching every car that passes. When people start physically disabling hardware instead of writing letters to the county board, it usually means the normal channels for pushback feel closed off.

We don't endorse vandalism — it's illegal, it risks criminal charges for whoever does it, and it gives police and Flock Safety a convenient narrative about "attacks on public safety infrastructure" that distracts from the actual debate: should a private company's camera network be logging the location of every driver in your county, retained and searchable, with little transparency about who can access it and why? That's the question local officials should be answering, not just the one about who's unbolting cameras at 2 a.m.

If you're in James City County or anywhere else wondering how many of these cameras are already tracking your street, check our camera map to see what's been documented near you, and visit our take-action page for lawful ways to push back — public records requests, council meetings, and organizing — rather than leaving it to someone with a wrench in the dark.