Covington Flock cameras damaged in light of anti-surveillance campaigns online

Our Take

Credit to KOMO News for getting Covington Police Chief Adam Easterbrook on record admitting that most of the city's Flock cameras have been damaged, some more than once, with people cutting down poles and even strapping fireworks to the units. That's not a fringe incident — that's a pattern, and it tells you something about how much public consent these cameras actually have once residents learn what they do.

Flock and its police partners love to frame these devices as quiet, consensual infrastructure that nobody really objects to. Covington's repair bill says otherwise. When a city has to keep replacing poles and camera housings every few weeks, that's a community voting with bolt cutters because the normal channels — public comment, city council votes, FOIA requests — too often get brushed aside before a contract is ever signed. We don't endorse property destruction, but we understand exactly why people are furious: these cameras log every passing car, store the data for weeks, and share it across a network most drivers have never heard of, let alone agreed to.

If you want a legal way to push back, start by finding out if there's a reader near you using our camera map, then take the fight to your city council with the tools on our take-action page. Public pressure through open meetings is slower than fireworks, but it's the version that actually gets cameras pulled down for good instead of just reinstalled on a sturdier pole.