In Dougherty County near Albany, Georgia, two automated license plate readers made by Flock Safety went up in flames, and police are now asking the public for tips. Officers initially suspected a malfunction, but after examining both scenes they reclassified the incidents as criminal damage to property. The fires occurred at the 2400 block of Radium Springs Road, locations that match two cameras catalogued on deflock.org, a community project mapping Flock installations across the US.

The suspected arson is merely the latest chapter in a broader revolt against Flock, whose ALPRs, gunshot detectors, and drones are deployed by thousands of US law enforcement agencies. The Institute for Justice counts at least 26 cases of officers allegedly abusing ALPR data to stalk romantic interests, most since 2024. The ACLU notes that fewer than 1 percent of scanned cars are linked to any crime, yet all are logged into a national, police-queryable database. Reports have also shown local police running Flock searches on behalf of ICE, and CBP accessing the data — despite Flock's denials of direct federal access.

The backlash has costs beyond PR: the LAPD recently announced it would let its Flock contract expire, citing unresolved data privacy and sharing concerns, and Eugene and Springfield, Oregon, canceled their contracts in December 2025 after three camera poles were cut down. In Park Ridge, Illinois, four of eight cameras were knocked over in two June nights — the police chief speculated about a TikTok trend. In North Suffolk, Virginia, 41-year-old Jeffrey Scott Sovern faces 13 counts of destruction of property plus larceny and burglary-tool charges for allegedly disassembling cameras he called unconstitutional.

Flock, for its part, responded with a blog post reminding customers of its add-on protection plan covering repair or replacement of damaged cameras — while dismissing rumors that vandals were after precious metals inside. The company did not address the privacy backlash. Somewhere, a product manager is updating the 'known failure modes' slide to include: fire.