Full transcript
Investigation is underway after somebody
stole three Flock license plate reader
cameras. Thank you for joining us at 10.
I'm Curtis Ming.
And I'm Andrea Flores. They were all
taken from the same area near Highway 49
and Nevada Street. Two were from the
Auburn Police Department. One was from
the Placer County Sheriff's Office. KCRA
3's Peyton Headlee is live in Auburn
tonight. So, Peyton, where exactly were
these cameras taken from?
Yeah, well, the cameras are mounted on
poles like this one here, but they're
strapped up quite a bit higher. You can
actually see the cord that was cut when
the thief came through and took it off
the pole.
This is what the Flock cameras look
like.
They read license plates and are used
largely to identify stolen vehicles and
help with criminal investigations.
They're very obvious.
Um, we're not trying to hide them. Um,
they're just there in order to help with
our investigative leads. Auburn normally
has 12 in the city. Now, they're down
two. Based on our research so far, it
looks like it was on April 26th. That's
when Sergeant Joe Almeida says the two
cameras on Nevada Street and Marguerite
Mine Road near Highway 49 were stolen.
Officers found the poles that the
cameras were mounted on empty and the
cords cut.
Both cameras were later found in a
nearby canal. So, they're completely
destroyed. Um, they were completely
submerged in the water, so we're unable
to recover that those cameras, but we're
partnering with Flock to get them
replaced.
The Placer County Sheriff's Office says
one of its cameras was also stolen the
same morning in the same area. That one
hasn't been recovered. Why do you think
someone would want to to take those
down?
Uh, based on what we've seen and if you
pay attention to nationwide, um, Um,
there's a big uproar in regards to
cameras, government overwatch. So, when
you look at it from that standpoint, um,
they're thinking Big Brother's paying
attention to them 24/7, 7 days a week.
But, in theory, what we're looking for
is intel gathering for one of the
subjects, missing persons, things like
that. We're not out there looking for
anybody every single day. As for who
took these cameras, Almeida says they
have footage of the suspect, but they're
still working to find them.
And he says they're still investigating,
canvassing the area, and going
door-to-door. They're asking if anyone
knows what happened here, saw what
happened, or knows who took those
cameras to get in touch with the
department. Live in Auburn, Peyton
Headlee, KCRN 3 All right, Peyton, thank
you so much. And Auburn police says the
cameras are about $800 each. They're now
working with Flock to get them replaced.
Months after Oakland expanded its
network of license plate readers, the
devices being targeted by vandals. Yeah,
I want you to look at this here. The
Flock cameras vandalized with paint.
Now, it's among several recently
targeted you see here. Police still
don't know who did it, but they tell us
they are aware of the damage, and they
are investigating. Advocates say acts
like this impact public safety.
Opponents, meanwhile, are concerned
about privacy.
I think
on the heels of what we've seen in
Minnesota and other cities like Chicago
and Tennessee around ICE,
um, folks folks aren't really feeling
being followed everywhere they go.
except because I you know, it's a major
investment, and the money is coming from
our taxpayers. So, if anyone coming to
destroy those cameras,
uh, there has to be consequences.
Flock Safety responded in a statement
saying, quote, "When a camera is
damaged, it directly impacts public
safety. While Flock supports individuals
making their voices heard in the
democratic process, committing criminal
acts should never be part of that
process.
Welcome back fightflaq.com. In today's
video, we're going to discuss vandalism
of FLAC cameras.
We just saw a couple of news reports
there both out of the state of
California. The first one we'll discuss
is the
FLAC cameras that were stolen out of
Auburn, California and there was one
stolen from the county sheriff's
department which was Placer County,
California. So this is
three cameras total.
Looks like they were ripped or cut down
from the poles.
They're infamous black poles and they
were
basically two were found in a canal
nearby
totally submerged. And basically they're
looking for a suspect or suspects.
So all I'm going to say on this is you
know obviously um
at this point in our fight against FLAC
I don't
uh condone uh vandalism but I definitely
uh
I'm not going to say I'm sad nor
disappointed by it either.
So uh hopefully uh
this this uh case uh I just hope it goes
unsolved. That's the best way I can put
it, you know. Hopefully they never solve
the case, okay? And and I and I I just
noticed if you really look in the you
know in the weeds of this news report uh
so these cameras got stolen three
cameras
two were found and submerged in a canal.
Okay, so how did they find those cameras
in a canal, okay? So they solved the
crime without the FLAC cameras with
their cameras, right? Basically what
they're telling us. Uh
but they said they couldn't solve crime
with without FLAC cameras but apparently
they solved they solved this crime with
without the FLAC cameras cuz they were
already ripped down and and then they
find these cameras in a canal submerged.
So either I call BS on that or those
cameras got tracking devices on them
also where they can track them and uh
basically find them
uh wherever they may be. So I'm kind of
curious about that. Those do have indeed
some kind of tracking device on them. Uh
but anyway, how the heck would they find
him submerged in a canal? I just I just
call BS on that. Uh and then they showed
a picture of the cop uh standing in the
water,
uh which is uh very interesting. Uh
but uh
and kind of comical, actually.
Um but I would say uh
this is going to keep happening, and
this is just the beginning, folks.
You're going to see more and more of
this kind of stuff as people get
frustrated with the system, when they
feel powerless, and the only only last
resort is to you know, to resort to
vandalism and things like that. I can
see this getting worse and worse as the
days and weeks and months go by, okay?
And again, I I uh
you know, I definitely uh
you know, I see you I see where you're
coming from. And and again, I feel the
pain there, and uh and uh
if this, you know, if we keep getting
surveilled, and you know, ultimately
it's going to go to Supreme Court, but
if if we fail there, then this is really
going to get out of hand, and and I
think it's going to be a free-for-all on
these cameras, okay? Uh similar to what
happened in uh uh Great Britain
uh with some of these kind of cameras,
right?
Uh but I think again, this is this is
just the tip of the iceberg, okay?
And the other report was also out of
California. It was in Oakland,
California, and they had uh I had read
they had just uh uh
renewed their contract with Flock back
in December of 2025, and they had a news
news report mentioned that. I had read
that also uh previously, and and
apparently that obviously got some folks
upset, and rightfully so. I understand
uh the citizens getting upset, you know?
Uh basically, uh this is like a Flock
camera tea party. You know, I I I get
it, you know? We, you know, this country
was founded on you know, the tea party.
Uh no taxation without representation.
This is the same thing, you know? We
don't want to be surveilled, okay?
Without a warrant, okay? And this is
what's going on. This is like a Flock
camera That's a Flock Flock camera tea
party. Uh basically the same thing. Uh
if you want to be uh be frank about it.
And
in this case, in the Oakland, California
case, the West Oakland area, the
vandalism was some spray paint on some
of the cameras. It said several cameras.
As our report mentioned. So, the spray
paint will do a will do a camera in.
Obviously, you can't
the lens
you know, you can't see anything if you
if you if you paint [clears throat] it,
okay? Um but uh that was uh it's a
pretty pretty low-tech uh solution, but
it does work. And again, we don't
condone any kind of vandalism, but I'm
definitely not upset about it. And I'm
definitely not going to uh lose any
sleep over it. Let me put it that way,
for sure. Um but this will get worse as
as Flock builds this network and people
start to get to you know, get informed.
We're still informing people, right? I'm
still in the stages of of notifying
people and letting them know what's
going on. Uh most people have no clue
what's going on, right? This is what
Fight Flock is all about, really,
education, uh letting people know about
the surveillance network that's being
built out in our country, the United
States of America,
uh US of A
under surveillance always. But this is
uh again, this will
this is just the tip of the iceberg,
right? We're going to see more and more
of these cases as months and weeks go
by. And again, we're uh you know,
obviously, you know, there's going to
they're going to charge these folks with
some crimes if they catch them, uh you
know, vandalism. I'm sure they're going
to put a lot of money behind it, too.
I'm sure they're going to put a lot of
resources behind finding these vandals.
They say, "Oh, the cameras are 800 bucks
each
or whatever."
Which the taxpayers paid for, anyway.
But in the Oakland case, it's
interesting that Flock says uh
their statement says, "Well, you know,
uh this impacts safety, blah blah blah."
If you watch the video again on that
news snippet. And then they say, "You
know, we we support people voicing their
concerns, but violence and vandalism is
not the answer. Criminal activity is not
the answer." Their actual words were,
"Criminal activity is not the answer.
Well, guess what? They are they're the
criminals. Flock is the criminals cuz
they're they're surveilling us
without a warrant. That's a criminal act
in itself, okay? And now they're going
to cry about somebody vandalizing their
cameras calling it a criminal act. Well,
the Flock in itself, the whole Flock
concept in itself is is basically a
it's a criminal act, okay? So, give me a
break there, okay? Give me a break
there.
You know,
two wrongs don't make a right, okay? And
then Flock is
they started this, right? They drew
first blood, right? And to me who draws
first blood matters, okay? Any kind of
fight, any kind of street fight, who
draws first blood that matters, okay?
And in this case,
Flock drew first blood, okay? So, they
don't need to be crying about their
cameras getting ripped down or painted
or vandalized in some kind of way.
But, thank you for watching. Thank you
for your support. Please subscribe and I
appreciate all all my supporters. Thank
you. Take care.