Darth Vader Satirizes 500 San Diego Flock Cameras at Council Meeting

3 articles · Updated · Fox News · Aug 21

A man dressed as Darth Vader used a San Diego City Council committee meeting to ridicule the city’s Flock surveillance cameras, joking that the system would help the Empire track “rebel scum” and “stalk my ex-girlfriend.”
The stunt targeted a live local fight over police surveillance, with the speaker accusing council members of backing technology that “imprisons” residents and follows children from “playground to pool.”
San Diego police use Flock automated license plate readers at about 500 locations citywide and say authorized personnel access the data only for law-enforcement purposes, with records deleted after 30 days unless kept as evidence.
The debate has widened beyond the cameras themselves: SDPD signed a one-year pilot for Flock Nova in December 2025, then later said it was not using the platform or linking its plate-reader data to it.
Public criticism has continued to build in San Diego and elsewhere as activists and some officials push for alternatives to expanding camera-based surveillance.