At least 25 Flock Safety surveillance cameras have been destroyed across five U.S. states since April 2025, according to stateofsurveillance.org. The vandalism spans California, Oregon, Virginia, and two other states, with one Virginia man alone facing 25 criminal counts for disabling 13 units.
The wave began in Suffolk, Virginia, where prosecutors say a single individual methodically cut down 13 cameras between April and October 2025, telling investigators he acted to defend Fourth Amendment rights. In Eugene and Springfield, Oregon, six cameras were felled in October 2025—one spray-painted and left with a profane note—while La Mesa, California saw two units smashed on Fletcher Parkway in February 2026, weeks after the city council voted to retain the network despite public opposition, stateofsurveillance.org reports. Reddit threads documented each incident and drew overwhelmingly supportive comments.
Flock Safety operates a $7.5 billion network of automatic license-plate readers used by more than 4,000 police departments and, controversially, by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The company has faced mounting criticism since investigative outlets revealed its ICE data-sharing agreements, prompting some municipalities to conceal camera locations. The sabotage campaign echoes earlier resistance to Ring-police partnerships and Clearview AI facial-recognition contracts, but the physical destruction marks an escalation from policy protests to direct action.
Flock has not announced replacements for the damaged units, and affected cities have given no timeline for repairs. Observers are watching upcoming city-council sessions in La Mesa and Suffolk for decisions on whether to reinstall cameras or terminate Flock contracts before the fiscal-year budget votes in June 2026.