Hundreds Support Legal Defense for Engineer Charged with Destroying Flock Surveillance Cameras
4 98"Hundreds of freedom lovers are rallying behind a US Air Force engineer" who's been accused of damaging over a dozen AI-integrated surveillance cameras last year and even knocking down their poles. Long-time Slashdot reader schwit1 shares this article from Futurism: According to local channel WAVY, Virginia-based Air Force engineer and mechanic Jeffrey Sovern is facing 13 counts of destruction of property, as well as six counts of both petit larceny and possession of burglary tools related to the destruction of Flock license plate cameras... [Wavy reports the cameras were sometimes pointed in the wrong direction or thrown to the street.]
Armed with garbage bags, spray paint, and even chainsaws, a not insignificant number of privacy vigilantes have taken the fight to Flock, using any means to free their neighborhoods of the ominous surveillance poles. On a GoFundMe page to raise money for his legal defense, the 41-year-old Sovern explained that this kind of privacy-minded vandalism has far more support than would outwardly appear...
Sovern kicked off the campaign late in December of 2025, where he encouraged his supporters to "reach out to the local governments and demand that these systems are taken down." The Virginia resident initially set his funding goal to $8,500. As news of his case has spread across the web, the amount of support has far outpaced those already-hopeful aspirations. [Two hours ago the legal fund stood at $23,326 from over 680 donors].
4 comments
Re:I agree, but do it legally (Score: 5, Insightful)
by oic0 ( 1864384 ) on Sunday July 05, 2026 @09:50PM (#66224132)
Generally speaking, the city councils don't care what you have to say. They approve data centers and flock cameras by default for some reason.
Re:I agree, but do it legally (Score: 5, Funny)
by ArchieBunker ( 132337 ) on Sunday July 05, 2026 @10:07PM (#66224154)
If you raise the issue with the city, then the objection becomes a matter of public record.
Oh thank god for the public record.
Re:I agree, but do it legally (Score: 5, Insightful)
by tlhIngan ( 30335 ) on <{slashdot} {at} {worf.net}> on Monday July 06, 2026 @02:40AM (#66224378)
You can do what one guy did in Washington - do a FOIA request. The photos and data are public records after all.
Don't make it a big FOIA request, just make it something targeted like an intersection on a date between two times, an hour apart. You travelled through it and want to see what information the camera got about you.
And maybe do more FOIA requests for other intersections as well.
The reason for the targeting is highly focused FOIA requests are less likely to be rejected as over broad requests and thus you are more likely going to get your images and data you requested.
What happened in Washington was the city councils got worried because the courts have started saying the FOIA request was perfectly valid and they have no reason to withhold the information requested. Councils were worried that the requests could contain information that stalkers might want. The courts kept saying to release the information, council kept pushing back, and then council cancelled the agreements because they saw they were going to have to release the information and they could not restrict who got a hold of it.
In other words, having the information available turned it into a liability for council because they had to release it as public records and there would be plenty of people like stalkers who would just love to get their hands on the information. So the only solution was to not collect the data in the first place.
Re:I agree, but do it legally (Score: 5, Interesting)
by Fly Swatter ( 30498 ) on Sunday July 05, 2026 @10:08PM (#66224156)
The would work, 40 or 50 years ago - our government has outgrown the need for citizens. We don't need vigilantes, we don't need crying at the circus (council meetings), we need to change the fundamental way our government responds to citizen concerns by making corporations legally powerless to interfere with all aspects of government.