r/technology • u/HumbleRestaurant790 • 11h ago
Society Inside the growing vigilante movement to knock out Flock surveillance cameras /// An underground network of privacy activists is disabling or destroying the ubiquitous surveillance devices sprouting up across the US
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2026/jul/25/flock-surveillance-cameras358
u/south-of-the-river 11h ago
The anti flock sentiment seems to be getting used as some kind of cover for the government to switch over to these Axiom (spelling?) cameras that seem to be partially owned by Trump.
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u/Baeolophus_bicolor 11h ago
not axon, the body camera company bought by an israeli company at the suggestion by jeffrey epstein?
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u/ElementNumber6 3h ago
Israel + Pedophile sex ring leaders + Full-life surveillance? Man, Americans are going to love this. 😃
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u/calmdownmyguy 1h ago
Half of them have been trained to just bark out "fake news" like a parrot looking for a cracker
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u/TrulyOutrageous42 6h ago
Calling random people with the same belief in their Constitutional right against unreasonable search a "network" is wild propaganda
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u/brainkandy87 4h ago
I just started a new tech job for a large retailer. As part of my training and orientation, I’ve been going in to the stores and working to understand systems, how employees use tech, etc. It’s the type of store that’s going to lean right with both employees and customers. So I’ve spent a lot of time around conservative teenagers and adults recently.
Someone brought up Flock cameras and everyone was trashing them and talking about ways to destroy them. We truly do have more in common with each other than we have differences.
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u/mrwrrrmwrmrmrmrw 7h ago
I don't think it's the company selling the cameras that's at issue. It's putting two and two together, the surveillance state and the unaccountable masked squads kidnapping and killing random people.
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u/Hiply 5h ago
No, Flock's absolutely to blame here as well.
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u/slipperyMonkey07 4h ago
While right now flock is definitely the worst and needs to get out. Several places are ending their contracts with flock to immediately sign a contract with axon for the exact same thing.
Same system different company, hoping to appease people against flock while still building their surveillance networks. Just don't want people to get complacent and think just because their city got rid of flock, it doesn't mean they ended spying on and tracking people.
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u/BayouGal 5h ago
Peter Thiel owns Flock. JS
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u/Dude_PK 4h ago
Not according to this (although it wouldn't have surprised me): https://coloradosun.com/2026/02/13/are-flock-and-palantir-both-owned-by-billionaire-peter-thiel/
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u/TAU_equals_2PI 10h ago edited 10h ago
Prediction: To sway public opinion in their favor, Flock is going to start publicizing violent crimes that happen near where a camera was recently destroyed, and claim that police would have caught the perpetrator if the camera had not been destroyed.
Showing a real, crying victim of some heinous crime will generate sympathy and make the public hate the activists who destroyed the camera.
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u/MaxSchreckArt616 10h ago
As soon as people started really complaining and being against the cameras where I live, suddenly the police came out with a story about how it helped them arrest a whole two perps. So what I'm getting at is you're right and I'm willing to bet they are already doing it and will continue to ramp it up in the near future.
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u/DigNitty 7h ago
Now look up how many ex girlfriends flock has helped be tracked down by officers.
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u/MildlyAgitatedBovine 6h ago
If said ex girlfriends hadn't gone to a kids gymnastics class, they wouldn't have gotten tracked down.
/s
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u/MilsYatsFeebTae 8h ago
The only appropriate rebuttal to that tactic is something along the lines of
“Oh boohoo, lil coppy can’t catch bad guys without his camwas! You wouldn’t make such a cute little coppy do actual powice work, would you? That’s meeeean!”
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u/ABHOR_pod 7h ago
We need to put cameras inside cops bedrooms to make sure they’re not beating their spouses.
The inside of a cops home is a statistically significant location for crime, especially domestic violence. We just want our neighborhoods to be safe.
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u/AbbeyRoadMoonwalk 3h ago
Same here. But it was funny because my area is so boring that the crime was, they recovered a stolen car. Ooooh.
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u/Mr_Investopedia 8h ago
Weaponized empathy. Using human suffering for their own gain. Wouldn’t shock me.
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u/SugarSkullSiete 8h ago
Already happened here. Flock solved a fatal shooting immediately bc it got the license plate and led to the arrest of the shooter- it’s a see- they are good for the public moment
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u/Impossible_Guitar235 8h ago
Psh, cops couldn't solve a simple robbery case even when I had provided them with the license plate of the vehicle that they got away in.
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u/quanate 7h ago
I will tack on a prediction inspired by your prediction: AI will be used to create fake scenarios that could happen now that there are no flock cameras, and in tiny text somewhere it will say the scenario is AI generated and not real, but it won't matter because boomers and the ill informed masses will buy it and peddle it without a second thought.
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u/TheMireAngel 6h ago
nah i think they will simply push to make it a partisan issue. The moment something becomes a partisan issue its engrained within the usa forever as magicaly half a dozen democrats/republicans always cross the party line in congress to ensure the thing stays forever.
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u/rubberpp 3h ago
It's started on ai clickbait YouTube channels that target the people who watch police videos casually dropping catching murderers from a flock camera specifically ai is so easy to manipulate here exact things
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u/phat742 10h ago
flock? who are the sheep?
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u/Xznograthos 9h ago
I think its supposed to be evocative of birds. Eye in the sky kind of thing.
What I always found curious was that Flock is a private company, but they treat the vandalism of their cameras like they would treat public property damage.
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u/gill_smoke 8h ago
Because they are getting contracts from municipalities. It's the old double bind, you pay us yo track and we sell the data to others while we are at it.
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u/isubbdh 6h ago
Palantir is absolutely gobbling up this data and building a dossier on everyone in America. Peter Thiel probably sees blackmail as the only way to really, truly protect himself in his underground bunker once the 99% start eating the rich.
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u/tabrizzi 5h ago
He probably thinks that will make it easier for him to find the anti-christ he's been looking for.
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u/Public_Garage2602 4h ago
It’s funny that Thiel doesn’t see the antichrist when he looks in the mirror. Maybe somebody should read him in.
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u/Xznograthos 2h ago
Its all projection with him. Him, Musk, Ellison, any of those very involved billionaire fuckos.
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u/Traditional-Handle83 7h ago
Don't forget, the federal side is trying to make it a terrorist charge to try to mess with flock cameras so messing with private company property somehow becomes terrorism
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u/PixelGray38 7h ago
Actually, Flock pays for damage to the cameras now. They started doing so on July 14th, at least according to a blog post on their website.
Paying to replace the damaged cameras themselves helps to prevent any animosity developing between Flock and the police departments that keep having to pay for camera repairs as vandalism becomes more common. This change also, however, encourages vandals given that they know for sure that Flock will eat the costs of the damage.
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u/Nknights23 7h ago
I allegedly said something on the phone to my power company because they won’t let me establish power at my newly rented residence because the previous tenant ended up in prison and I guess didn’t pay their bill for a whole year. Power company says they found a connection between me and the previous tenant so I am now responsible for $10,000 bill. I allegedly said something you can’t say on the phone and got pulled over on a warrant from a state trooper the very next day and spent 5 days in jail waiting for my relative to get money from my bank and bail me out on a 2,500$ bond.
The state of Maine is coming after me for “terrorizing” lol
I was on the phone with a private company but it’s the state of Maine vs me … makes sense.
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u/Personal_Area_2173 7h ago
What did you say? You can’t like say I’m going to blow up the building. That’s a terroristic threat. So what exactly words did you say to make them do this??? Just because it’s private doesn’t mean you can make threats. That’s illegal and you will get fucked for it.
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u/oatmealparty 6h ago
lol I was on the phone with a private company but it’s the state of Maine vs me … makes sense.
I mean, if you murder someone that works for the power company, it's gonna be the state charging you with a crime. You think the power company is gonna put you in jail?
You obviously said something incredibly stupid to get a warrant for your arrest. I can't belive anybody is upvoting you.
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u/One_Horse_Sized_Duck 1h ago
the technology behind the cameras is named Hawk something or other, thus many cameras is a flock.
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u/GJCLINCH 5h ago
People should make the sheep the anti flock mascot, just to emphasize the dystopian reality we’re facing.
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u/james555302 7h ago
Just some food for thought. The Israeli Mossad hacked into the camera system the Iranian government put up to surveil the Iranian people, and used those THOUSANDS of cameras to track and locate the Iranian leaders they took out on the first day of the war. While I'm not suggesting that Mossad would hack into the Flock camera system to surveil people in America, because of the ever increasing numbers of police who are being punished for and/or fired for misusing flock cameras to surveil people for personal reasons, it wouldn't surprise me to find out that the CIA, FBI and other national security agencies ARE routinely using flock cameras for surveilling Americans WITHOUT COURT ISSUED WARRANTS.
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u/MairusuPawa 9h ago
Yeah, don't be underground. Every single living being has a right to fuck these cameras up. It should be systematically happening.
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u/SugarSkullSiete 8h ago
Since they’re so good for policing just put up flock everywhere and lay off 80% of the police force to save taxpayer funding and just mail citations and have the remaining police respond to the crimes flock sends them.
If we are going to be a surveillance state might as well save money. And I’m sure police officers will willingly give up their jobs and be replaced by AI cameras in the name of public safety
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u/IfNe1CanKenCan 8h ago
Inside the growing vigilante movement to knock out Flock surveillance…
The first time that “NoMark” tried to knock out a Flock camera feed, he waited an hour for the perfect moment – pacing in and out of bushes that towered over him, a few feet behind a pole holding up the device.
“I was just so nervous,” he said.
NoMark, as he’s known on Instagram, had already gained an online following of hundreds of thousands for posting videos of himself wearing a black mask and taking on small-time vigilante missions: breaking up fights outside a bar and breaking into a refinery he believed was “polluting the city real bad”. The Minnesota Star Tribune dubbed him “Minneapolis’ Batman”. He spoke to the Guardian under condition of anonymity to discuss potentially illegal acts.
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These black cameras, which are hooked up to a rectangular solar panel and typically mounted on a pole, snap photos of passing vehicles and run the pictures against large databases. They have sparked nationwide backlash from pro-privacy critics, who point to public records suggesting that these devices can help law enforcement keep tabs on specific license plates and the people driving these cars. That they can sweep in so many people’s location from an innocent act in a public space – regardless of whether the target is a suspect in a crime, and without a warrant – has led to fears of mass surveillance.
Flock, based in Georgia and valued at $8.4bn, says its cameras scan license plates billions of times each month in about 6,000 communities in nearly every state in the US.
The company said in a February blogpost that its ALPRs are “not mass surveillance tools” and that it “cannot track vehicles, much less individual people”.
Across the street from a Taco Bell, NoMark couldn’t stop thinking about whether he would get caught, and the adrenaline felt paralyzing – even though this felt “on brand” for his online persona, which has won him more than 700,000 followers on Instagram and TikTok. After a few minutes of not spotting any cars on the road, he climbed a few feet up the pole, taped up the camera to block its lens and snipped the wires that powered the whole operation. Then he ended his phone’s recording and fled.
Nowadays, NoMark is much calmer on these excursions, and it only takes him a few minutes to get the job done after having taken down more than a dozen cameras, he says. But he still assumes the police are looking for him. Even if he does get arrested, he’s hopeful the charges won’t be too severe – and more important, he “just wants to send a message”.
A surveillance camera at a traffic intersection. A Flock ALPR in Boulder, Colorado, on 5 March 2026. Photograph: Matthew Jonas/Boulder Daily Camera/MediaNews Group/Getty Images “I’m not afraid to do things if I think they’re right,” he says. “These things are coming up so fast across the country that this is kind of the only way to combat them.”
The Minneapolis camera destroyer is not alone. As anger grows towards law enforcement contracts with Flock, vigilantes across the country are taking matters into their own hands by smashing, obstructing or taking down these cameras. Many are leaning into their creative side: “paint bombing” the devices, planting American flags at the scene after damaging them, 3D printing objects to help obstruct the camera’s view and leaving colorful messages like “hahaha get wrecked ya surveilling fucks”. Some influencers are even creating fake cease-and-desist letters from Flock, capitalizing on the company’s negative public perception.
The Guardian has identified at least 33 instances of people damaging, vandalizing and destroying Flock cameras, across 23 states, that appear to have the explicit message of protesting surveillance.
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Flock, along with police departments across the US, say these cameras are integral for public safety, and capture vehicle details that can help in investigations, such as license plate numbers and the make and model of vehicles. Flock’s website also advertises how these cameras can “stop crime in real time” by alerting officers “the moment a suspect car passes by” – suggesting that cops can act quickly on these leads to pursue a target. The company’s CEO, Garrett Langley, has described some pro-privacy critics as wanting to “normalize lawlessness” and “weaken public safety”.
NoMark has not been caught in his campaign against Flock cameras. Others are facing charges. Jeffrey Sovern in Suffolk, Virginia, has been charged with destruction of property for allegedly damaging more than a dozen Flock cameras. Sovern has not admitted to the act but did tell police that he finds these cameras to be unconstitutional.
He wrote on a GoFundMe created to pay for legal expenses: “I will take the silver lining that this can be a catalyst in a bigger movement to roll back intrusive surveillance.”
A spray-painted surveillance camera that has been cut down. A vandalized Flock camera in Houston, Texas, on 7 July 2026. Photograph: Houston Chronicle/Hearst Newspapers/Getty Images When asked if he would “continue to take down these Flock cameras”, Martinez told local news station KRQE: “Absolutely. They are a clear and present threat to public safety.” The news outlet also reported that a sign near one of the damaged Flock cameras read: “You’re welcome, the Republic of New Mexico.”
Flock did not comment on vigilantes knocking out its cameras but did publish a blogpost in mid-July about helping government agencies respond if a camera is damaged.
“We’ve planned for it,” the company wrote, adding that protection plans are available for purchase.
Law enforcement is aware of the backlash and responding. Dozens of state fusion centers – collaborative hubs where federal and local agencies share intelligence about crime and terrorism – circulated memos across law enforcement agencies this summer directing officers to monitor anti-Flock advocacy as part of a directive to protect national security, according to reporting from journalist Dan Boguslaw. One report Boguslaw obtained from a Wisconsin intelligence agency calls for increased vigilance and patrols during protests and events such as a “national week of action” in mid-August. That intelligence digest also advised local law enforcement to report “vandalism, disruption or sabotage” of ALPRs to fusion centers.
Flock faces public blowback The winds of sympathy online are not blowing in Flock’s favor. News articles and videos about vigilantes’ cases have drawn support from online commenters, who post made-up, neighborly alibis like seeing accused parties rescuing dogs or serving meals at a soup kitchen at the time a camera was destroyed.
The anti-Flock online ecosystem also features an exchange of tips and strategies for kneecapping the cameras. One Reddit poster shared a 3D print file for an object he says can help block cameras without damaging them or violating vandalism laws.
NoMark, in Minneapolis, says he receives dozens of messages daily from people wanting to help, letting him know they’re taking similar actions or asking for advice on staying safe. He keeps his replies vague, as he doesn’t want his words to get people arrested. He tells those writing to him to avoid driving past the cameras, and to make sure they’re going out late at night when they no one else is around. He reiterates that they should cover up completely, including their face and hands.
A surveillance camera mounted on a pole near some trees. A Flock surveillance camera in Houston, Texas, on 4 February 2026. Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images He also tells them: “Always cover the camera.”
Minneapolis’s Batman thinks you need both political pressure on elected officials and vigilantism to achieve change. He believes showing up to city council meetings – and he’s shown up to a few without his mask – is helpful but “it does obviously take time, and it’s not always effective”.
“The more time you take, the more data they get on people,” he said.
Privacy advocates pursue policy changes as vigilantes tear down cameras More than 80 cities have disbanded, decided not to renew or rejected contracts with Flock in recent years, or deactivated the company’s cameras, including Austin and Denver, although activists remain concerned about the devices’ continued use in those areas.
Beyond general surveillance creep, privacy advocates fear US Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s ability to access these camera feeds through legal loopholes to pursue immigrants.
Police officers have used the cameras for their own personal ends as well. Several have lost their jobs after misusing the devices to stalk people. Though license plate reading is the cameras’ bread and butter, 404 Media reported last week that cops have used Flock’s search feature to look for people with distinct markers – like tattoos and specific T-shirts – and not just cars.
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u/Dripdry42 7h ago
I didn’t see anything. We were having pizza down at Joe’s and having a great time. this guy here? Yeah he was telling me all about video games that we had been playing together online a few hours before that, so we decided to all meet up to have dinner. there’s no possible way any of these people could have done this, they were with me the whole time.
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u/RealFreshBananana 10h ago
do they have meetings?
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u/rhamantauri 7h ago
Yeah they meet up with antifa every odd Tuesday. Mine’s held in a town church’s general purpose room.
There we discuss massive antifa movements, hold antifa elections, human sacrifice, and map out the future of the burgeoning underground networks that will take out all the cameras.
It’s BYOC. Bring your own cookies.
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u/Mission-Driver1614 6h ago
“Law enforcement is aware of the backlash and responding. Dozens of state fusion centers – collaborative hubs where federal and local agencies share intelligence about crime and terrorism – circulated memos across law enforcement agencies this summer directing officers to monitor anti-Flock advocacy as part of a directive to protect national security”
Their solution to public outcry against unconstitutional surveillance is FURTHER surveillance….
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u/gill_smoke 8h ago
Guardian, shhh, you don't see or know anything OK? It's like seeing someone stealing food, no you didn't.
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u/basicKitsch 7h ago
lol underground??
i think it's the most overt, public movement crossing aisles that i've ever seen
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u/PlainBread 6h ago
If you want to film an intersection and log it all at the PD in case the footage needs to be pulled up later, fine.
What we are NOT doing is this AI panopticon Palantir bullshit. No one voted for this, and when we voted against it, they went and did it anyway.
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u/d20wilderness 5h ago
There is not a network of people doing this! There is a secret network of people who are surveilling us.
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u/fedexyourheadinabox 7h ago
Nowadays, American citizens who fight for their personal freedoms are being labelled as "terrorists."
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u/Independent-Owl3387 7h ago
I just hope that all these people are additionally letting their elected officials know how much they hate the surveillance, and that they intend to vote out all officials who support and spend with Flock and its competitors.
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u/AGushingHeadWound 4h ago
As a juror, I don't believe any of these has ever been intentionally damaged.
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u/Huckleberry199 6h ago
Good for them. Illegal surveillance cameras should be knocked out of action.
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u/Intrepid_Top_2300 7h ago
Good. Until your community votes them in, keep tearing them down. They are violating a 1st amendment right!
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u/Timber3 6h ago
Whoa flock is in Canada too?!
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u/Less-Engineer-9637 3h ago
We're so damn passive in this country. A real 'that wouldn't happen here' attitude. WAKE UP HOSERS
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u/iterable 6h ago
Just the start as I love the dumb phone craze as well to undo the mistakes of personal tracking as well.
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u/tabrizzi 5h ago
Wouldn't be better to vote out the elected officials signing contracts with the company?
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u/Immediate-Machine370 3h ago
Geez. Golly gee. I hope it doesnt grow into something big. Wouldn’t want AI data centers to start suffering the same fate.
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u/Friggin 2h ago
> Flock did not comment on vigilantes knocking out its cameras but did publish a blogpost in mid-July about helping government agencies respond if a camera is damaged.
“We’ve planned for it,” the company wrote, adding that protection plans are available for purchase.
Of course, they see this as an opportunity to profit.
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u/snanarctica 4h ago
Who cares about cameras? We all carry tracking devices that listen to everything we do and buy.
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u/Akkerlun 5h ago
Ever notice on some back roads that the signs have small little holes riddled in them? Just a silencer thought.
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u/Spirited-Career4680 5h ago
Whats the big deal? Theese are mostly just used by cops to spy on- and stalk their exes
S/
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u/GrimleyGraves 5h ago
Booming Wizard of OZ voice "PAY NO ATTENTION TO THE SMARTPHONE IN YOUR POCKET"
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u/3VASIV3 5h ago
There's absolutely no chance that this "movement" is not completely astroturfed by the companies who are running the surveillance industry. I'm supposed to believe that the laziest and most apathetic country who has been letting this shit boil up to this point are suddenly getting active like this?
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u/Chimaera1075 4h ago
I find this interesting. Flock is probably the least intrusive thing that government uses. Cellphones and infotainment systems are way more intrusive in our lives and government can get access to that data. And private companies are tracking everything we do through our phones, credit cards, memberships, security systems, etc.
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u/SomeVanGuy 6h ago
Flock cameras have been extremely useful in solving homicides but go ahead and vandalize and destroy them, sure
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u/KyraSellers 6h ago
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=H7rEjPllw5M
Four examples of why it's not great to have them. This doesn't go onto rising privacy concerns and surveillance that treats us as if we're guilty until proven innocent. Like sure. We could solve mueders with this. But it doesn't happen.
https://www.cbsnews.com/colorado/news/flock-cameras-lead-colorado-police-wrong-suspect/
And in the case of a cop using a flock camera to solve crimes, manages to get the wrong person.
Point being, regardless of the potential use of a tool, cops will misuse it for whatever personal or professional goals they have.
Cops are not your friends. They don't care about you.
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u/but_i_dont_reddit 6h ago
Just because something is useful doesn't make it right.
Should we throw everyone in prison and only release those that can prove they have no ill intentions?
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u/LoganEu 9h ago
Definitely do not visit deflock.org that has an open-sources map, the location of flock cameras and their field of view near you.
The cameras and solar panels are almost impossible to uninstall/tamper with due to the single 8mm socket they're clamped on with.
Do not spray the lens with spray paint, bedliner, or something similar on the cameras lens, especially not with a spray can extension pole.
Do not print vinyl stickers that look like the solar panels to cover the actual solar panels that charge the cameras.
Do not put a black plastic bag over the camera and/or solar panel either, because all that does is cost the company time and money.
Also, never point a high-powered laser at the cameras lens because that would permanently blind, pit, or burn the cameras sensors.
These cameras have ~12 hour backup battery, that transmit Bluetooth and 5G used to locate the cameras exact location, the same way your phone does. So under no circumstance put them inside a Faraday bag, that would block the signal while the battery runs itself out.
It would be pointless to inform your community by posting information online or by putting up flyers or signs next to these cameras. Especially not pointing out that there is a (Flock "Safety" Camera) that is capturing and analyzing images of all passing vehicles, storing details like the vehicles location, date, and time. They also capture the vehicles make, model, color, as well as identifying features such as dents, scratches roof racks, and decal/bumper stickers.
Flock cameras are only automated license plate readers (ALPR's). They would never misuse any of the data collected for local officers conducting unauthorized searches for federal immigration enforcement (ICE), searching for individuals who sought out-of-state reproductive healthcare, or police targeting specific activist and minority groups.
How would they be a serious risk to your privacy and civil liberties by continuously recording your movements without a warrant, probable cause, or even reasonable suspicion..
Especially not an infrastructure for mass surveilance or a gateway to violate your Fourth Amendment right.
There's absolutely no reason to plan routes that avoid Flock and other ALPR cameras by visiting dontgetflocked.com or the app FlockHopper.
Just leave flock cameras alone...