A fake police camera was destroyed. Prosecutors charged him with three felonies.
Flock Safety cameras read license plates for police departments across the country. They photograph the plates that pass them and log where and when. Between 23 July and 3 August, several of them were stolen from Lockwood Boulevard in Oviedo, Florida.
So the police built one that could not be stolen. An officer 3D-printed a replica, mounted it where the real ones had been, and staked it out.
Just after midnight on 20 August, a 24-year-old named Evan Meyer cut it down. Police say he was dressed in black with gloves and a face covering, and that he used a pair of his father's pruning shears from the garage. He cut the camera down and then smashed it. He was arrested on the spot.
The replica was hollow plastic. It had never recorded a plate, and it cost a few dollars in filament to make.
Meyer is charged with three felonies. Grand theft and attempted larceny. Criminal mischief with more than $1,000 in damage. Damaging computer or electronic equipment. His bond was set at $7,500. He later told police he had been uncomfortable with a Flock camera near his street.
A real Flock camera costs about $800. The damage he is charged with is over $1,000. The thing he actually broke was worth neither.
The pushback against these cameras is not confined to Oviedo. An NPR review found Flock cameras have been vandalized in at least 36 states. An open-source project called DeFlock maps them, and as of the end of July it had plotted about 119,000 readers nationwide.
There is a record of what the cameras do once they are up. InvestigateTV identified more than 70 cases of law enforcement officers or employees investigated, disciplined, fired or arrested for misusing the Flock database. Newsweek counted misuse allegations in at least 12 states. This summer Flock changed its own audit logs so that they no longer show which officer ran a search, or the plate they ran.
Flock's chief executive, Garrett Langley, called DeFlock a terroristic organization in an interview with Forbes. He later apologized, saying his comments were a mistake.
Nobody publishes a national count of how many of these cameras have been destroyed. Asked in February whether it even tracks the number, Flock would not say.
By the numbers
- 3 — felonies charged over a hollow plastic replica that never recorded a plate[1]
- about $800 — the cost of a real Flock camera, against the $1,000 damage threshold he is charged with[2]
- at least 36 — states where Flock cameras have been vandalized, by NPR's count[3]
- about 119,000 — license plate readers mapped nationwide by the open-source DeFlock project[4]
- more than 70 — officers or employees investigated, disciplined, fired or arrested for misusing the Flock database[5]
- at least 12 — states with allegations of police misusing Flock systems[6]
The reporting
This story is built on reporting by 404 Media. Read the original →
Sources
- 404 Media, man charged with 3 felonies for breaking a 3D-printed decoy Flock camera
- WFTV, man arrested in Oviedo for smashing a fake police Flock camera
- ClickOrlando / WKMG, Oviedo arrest over decoy Flock camera raises questions about surveillance
- Police1, Florida police put up decoy license plate cameras to catch a suspected vandal
- NPR, amid intense backlash people are vandalizing Flock surveillance cameras
- InvestigateTV, Flock alters system tracking transparency as alleged misuse cases expand
- Newsweek, police accused of misusing Flock cameras across 12 states
- Fox News, 119,000 license plate cameras track drivers nationwide
- TechCrunch, Americans are destroying Flock surveillance cameras
Image credits
- Hero: source (CC BY 2.0) — Tony Webster
- In text: source (Bona fide media use, operator-cleared) — Ed Ino / Indybay
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