Flock Safety surveillance cameras are being vandalized across the US
Surveillance cameras are installed everywhere in modern society, and it has been reported that some of these cameras installed by certain companies are being vandalized across the United States.
Across the US, people are dismantling and destroying Flock surveillance cameras
Americans are destroying Flock surveillance cameras | TechCrunch
https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/23/americans-are-destroying-flock-surveillance-cameras/
In the second week of February 2026, two surveillance cameras were vandalized in La Mesa, a small town just east of San Diego, California. One was vandalized and abandoned near the median strip of the road, and the other was left with its main components removed. The vandalism was clearly intentional, apparently designed to leave some kind of message. Technology journalist Brian Merchant points out that the reason for this was 'because the city decided to continue its contract with the surveillance company despite protests from San Diego residents.'
The 'San Diego-based surveillance company' is Flock Safety , a comprehensive security solutions company. Flock Safety's surveillance cameras are typically mounted on poles 8-12 feet tall and powered by solar panels. The La Mesa cameras are the latest example of a growing backlash against Flock Safety across the United States. In recent months, there have been reported incidents of Flock Safety cameras being vandalized in at least five states.
Flock Safety, valued at $7.5 billion, has installed automatic license plate readers (ALPRs) in approximately 6,000 locations across the U.S. ALPRs are known for collecting not only images of license plates but also identifying data to identify vehicles, owners, and the routes they took.
This data can be collected, stored, and accessed without a warrant, making it a common workaround for law enforcement agencies to collect data about ordinary citizens, which has sparked outrage among the American public.
The fact that the data collected by Flock Safety
The name Flock Safety became famous overnight when a commercial featuring 'Amazon's network camera Ring and Flock Safety' aired during the Super Bowl on February 8, 2026. However, this partnership was dissolved after users reacted negatively to it.
Amazon Ring ends partnership with Flock Safety after backlash over surveillance - GIGAZINE
There have been multiple instances where law enforcement has used data collected by Flock Safety.
For example, a police chief in Georgia was arrested and charged with misusing Flock Safety data to stalk and harass civilians.
In another case, Flock Safety data was used to track people seeking abortions across state lines in states where abortion is illegal, and some have argued that such warrantless collection of information about citizens violates the Fourth Amendment .
As a result, citizens in several states, including Oregon, Virginia, and California, have pressured their governments to terminate contracts with Flock Safety. In fact, cities such as Santa Cruz, California, and Eugene, Oregon, have terminated their contracts with Flock Safety as a result of protests.
At least six Flock Safety surveillance cameras were reportedly destroyed during protests in Oregon, and in Greenview, Illinois, a pole housing a Flock Safety surveillance camera was cut down and a note attached to it read, 'Hahaha, security cameramen, screw up.'
Elsewhere, police in Lisbon, Connecticut, are investigating the destruction of another Flock Safety camera.
In Virginia, Jeffrey S. Soburn was arrested in December 2025 for dismantling and destroying 13 Flock Safety cameras over the course of a year. Soburn admitted to the crime.
Suffolk man charged with destroying 13 Flock cameras - YouTube
In addition, the arrested Soburn is raising funds on the crowdfunding site GoFundMe to cover legal costs, and in this, he explained the reason for destroying the Flock Safety camera, saying, 'My name is Jeff. I respect privacy. I respect everyone's right to privacy as defined by the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution. I am truly grateful for the support from the community as local media discovered my legal issues and the coverage is spreading.'
Fundraiser by Jeff S : Jeff Sovern Legal Defense Fund
https://www.gofundme.com/f/jeff-sovern-legal-fund
Soburn directs his backers to DeFlock , a website aimed at tracking and combating the proliferation of Flock Safety cameras.
'Next to generative AI, I can't think of any other technology or project that has been so vigorously opposed and criticized on both sides of the aisle as Flock Safety,' Merchant said.
YouTuber Ben Jordan showed how to prevent your license plate from being captured by Flock Safety cameras, and in response to this trend, Florida passed a law making it illegal to hide or alter license plates in 2025.
Breaking The Creepy AI in Police Cameras - YouTube
Merchant also checked Reddit posts about the destruction of Flock Safety cameras and found many openly supportive comments about the vandalism.
According to Bill Paul of the San Diego Slackers , outrage over Flock Safety is simmering not just on internet message boards but in real life, too.
'San Diego has a contract with smart streetlight manufacturer Ubicquia, but the software layer behind this smart streetlight is from Flock. It's easy to see that Flock's hardware is monitoring the same citizens without any monitoring, just like a retail store,' Paul said, emphasizing that Flock Safety's monitoring tools are installed in various forms throughout the city.
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