Man dressed as Darth Vader mocks San Diego's use of Flock surveillance cameras
A man dressed as Darth Vader used a San Diego city meeting to satirically endorse Flock Safety's license plate cameras, amid growing backlash against the surveillance company over misuse concerns.
An unidentified man dressed as Star Wars villain Darth Vader appeared at a San Diego public safety committee meeting on Thursday, using the costume to deliver a satirical defense of the city's use of Flock Safety license plate reader cameras.
Claiming "the emperor is a fan of Flock," the man went on to describe the surveillance technology in ominous terms, saying it could be used to track people as they move between everyday locations. He also warned the cameras could be misused for tracking children or stalking former partners, referencing a recent case in Louisiana where a sheriff's deputy was fired for using Flock's system to track his ex-fiancee's car more than 3,000 times.
Atlanta-based Flock Safety markets its technology to law enforcement agencies, citing successes such as locating missing people and recovering stolen vehicles. San Diego's city council voted in December to continue its contract with the company.
Growing scrutiny
Recent incidents have raised questions about the technology's reliability. In San Diego, a man spent a month in jail after a Flock camera wrongly linked him to an attempted violent carjacking.
According to grassroots group DeFlock, roughly 100 municipalities across the US had deactivated, canceled or rejected Flock contracts as of August 2026. Some critics have gone further, attempting to physically disable or destroy cameras — including one man in Ohio who was arrested over alleged damage to a Flock camera, though a grand jury declined to indict him on felony vandalism charges.
In August, Flock announced new policies intended to curb misuse of its system, including a requirement for law enforcement agencies to adopt an audit assistance feature by year's end. Some legal experts, however, said the measures fall short of ensuring real accountability.
