Mock flock cameras? Police set up fake flock cameras as a sting to catch vandals #flock #cops

Our Take

The Antihero Broadcast flags a wrinkle we should all expect more of: if communities are yanking down or spray-painting Flock Safety cameras in protest, it's only a matter of time before departments respond with decoys built specifically to catch the vandals in the act. It's a clever bit of countersurveillance judo — use the backlash against the technology as bait for more technology.

Whether or not this particular setup is confirmed police procedure, the underlying dynamic is real. Flock units keep popping up on poles across the country with little public input, and some residents are responding the only way they feel they can — direct, physical pushback. Departments then get to frame camera destruction as a crime story rather than a conversation about consent, data retention, or who gets to see your travel patterns. A fake camera sting doesn't answer any of those questions; it just raises the stakes for anyone who tries to opt out by force.

We'd rather see that energy channeled into something that actually moves the needle — public records requests, city council meetings, and local ordinances that rein in ALPR deployments before they're bolted to a pole. Check our camera map to see what's already watching your streets, and hit take action for ways to push back that don't end with a decoy camera and a criminal charge.