Leftist vandals bent on destroying Flock cameras that pose 'danger for radicals'

Leftists are vandalizing Flock Safety cameras across the United States while circulating a map and guides as encouragement, according to activist websites.

Anonymous radicals have repeatedly used antifa-affiliated blog platform NoBlogs to coordinate and take credit for attacks on the cameras since 2025, as Flock's license plate-reading technology sparks backlash, a Washington Examiner review found. The posts shed light on how extremists are riding the wave of anti-surveillance sentiment toward their broader goal of sabotaging law enforcement.

Formal organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union are nonviolently advocating against the cameras in local government after police officers were accused of abusing them to track innocent subjects and work with President Donald Trump's Immigration and Customs Enforcement. But other activists refuse to settle for policy reforms or technological improvements, instead decrying the cameras because they make crime riskier.

"Every camera is a cop, [thus] destroying one is about half as good as gouging a pig’s eyes," the NoBlogs site Philly Anti-Capitalist said in a June 2025 post. A March post from the NoBlogs site Smash West also said removing Flock and other surveillance cameras is a way to "build neighborhood power against ICE and police" and set the stage for riots.

"The most prominent technological threat to our ability to disappear is cameras," said a February "armed resistance" guide on "Warzone Distro," an anarchist NoBlogs site. "In the cities, this now especially means Flock and Ring cameras, as well as traffic cameras, especially those which are able to identify vehicle make, model, color, and supposedly even more details."

More than 5,000 law enforcement agencies in more than 6,000 communities use Flock cameras, and they helped more than a million investigations in 2025, according to the company, which was founded in 2017. Flock Safety has repeatedly pushed back on pro-civil liberties critics in recent months, pointing to cases of police officers using its technology to solve serious crimes such as kidnappings and homicides. The company emphasizes it does not decide how police use the data or whether they share it with federal authorities, including ICE.

"The fact is, these tools are going to be used by police — and in a world where law enforcement staffing is tight and there is still crime that hurts communities, we fundamentally believe that our police should have access to the best technology," Flock Safety CEO Garrett Langley said in June 2025. "All people deserve the right to be safe where they live, work, and raise a family."

Media outlets have reported a handful of suspects arrested since 2025 for allegedly vandalizing Flock cameras, but leftists claim to have destroyed them on a much wider scale. One anonymous NoBlogs post on the website "Act For Freedom Now!" spoke on behalf of a group taking credit for disabling more than 75 Flock cameras in the San Francisco Bay Area in September.

NoBlogs, managed by the Italy-based Autistici/Inventati collective, allows leftists to create websites encouraging crime while preventing governments from identifying creators. The NoBlogs site "Abolition Media" led to a left-wing terrorist's prosecution and conviction in California after the FBI linked him to a June 2024 post bragging about an arson attack.

Several anti-Flock posts reference open-source maps of the cameras across America or a March 2025 instruction manual titled, "Birds of a Feather Destroy Flock Together." The guide advises activists to block lenses with spray paint, stickers, or other items and lays out various tools for disassembling the devices.

Flock cameras, however, are not the anarchists' only surveillance targets. Philly Anti-Capitalist and the Oregon-focused NoBlogs site "Rose City Counter-Info" alluded to mass surveillance camera destruction as an anarchist tradition dating back to 2013 known as "Camover" games.

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"For the months of July and August, we challenge you to join us in a game of revelry and destruction against the surveillance state!" the site Rose City Counter-Info said in a July 3 post calling on Portland residents to band together to destroy Flock and other cameras around town. The blog encouraged vandals to conceal their identities with masks, hats, hoods, and "nondescript clothing that you don’t mind parting with."

"In the [past] 7 years, Philly’s camera system has gotten too good. ... This spells danger for radicals insurgents guerillas and criminals of any milieu," Philly Anti-Capitalist said. "The solution is simple and it was implemented systematically by various crews during the George Floyd uprising. Strategy and tactics were employed to defeat surveillance, and in the blind spot of the state, anarchy bloomed."