Its cameras are installed on poles at street corners, in parks and residential communities, and near countless businesses, tracking vehicles and private citizens across a growing surveillance network accessible by thousands of U.S. law enforcement agencies.
Now Flock Safety’s cameras—designed to monitor and catalog motor vehicles by license plate and physical characteristics—are facing scrutiny from lawmakers and private citizens alike, and acts of vandalism from activist vigilantes.
In several incidents, activists cut cameras down with reciprocating saws, hit them with trucks and baseball bats, and defaced lenses with spray paint.
In a more peaceful statement of protest, one Florida resident braves the heat for hours each day, holding a sign that reads ‘Down with the Flock’ in front of a Flock camera near his home in St. Petersburg….