This is insane.<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
By Victor Tangermann<\/p>\n\n\n\n Flock Safety CEO Garrett Langley is desperately trying to stop his mass surveillance startup from turning into one of the most hated companies in the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As vigilantes continue to tear down<\/a> its fleet of cameras and find creative new ways to obstruct them<\/a>, Langley attempted to reason with Flock\u2019s critics, calling for a \u201ccompromise\u201d last week<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yet the negative press keeps piling up, which could greatly undermine the embattled CEO\u2019s uninspired de-escalation efforts. As 404 Media<\/em> reports<\/a>, a man has now been charged with three felonies after he cut down a 3D-printed \u201cdecoy\u201d Flock camera, which was set up by a police department in Florida to \u201cbait\u201d vandals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s a striking new approach to fight back against the wave of vandalism, highlighting a fierce battle between law enforcement departments that\u2019ve signed contracts with Flock and citizens unwilling to be under constant surveillance by the company\u2019s many thousands of license plate-reading cameras.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to an arrest report obtained by 404 Media<\/em>, Ovideo, Florida, resident Evan Meyer was charged with attempted larceny\/grand theft, criminal mischief of property damage worth more than $1,000, and property crimes against computer equipment supplies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSeveral of our Flock Safety cameras were stolen between 7\/23\/2026 -8\/3\/2026 out of the Lockwood Blvd. corridor and we replaced them with clone style Flock cameras,\u201d the report reads. \u201cThese Flock \u2018bait\u2019 cameras were made to closely resemble that of real Flock cameras but did not cost the same amount nor collect any data within the device.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMeyer grabbed his father\u2019s pruning shears from the garage, walked down the street (south from his house) and was tall enough to cut the mount off and then smashed the camera on the ground,\u201d the report continues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite the 3D-printed decoy only being worth a couple of dollars at most, Meyer was hit with the full amount of the actual cost to replace a real camera, making his arrest even more controversial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Beyond the report, details remain extremely sparse about the police department\u2019s \u201cdecoy\u201d ruse. There\u2019s also dissent in the local government: Oviedo mayor Megan Sladek said she was \u201cspeechless,\u201d arguing in a Facebook post<\/a> that while \u201cVANDALISM IS WRONG,\u201d a \u201cmajority of COUNCIL AGREED TO CONSIDER ENDING FLOCK\u201d mere days before the incident.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhile it is irrelevant to the issue of vandalism, when the fake cameras were fabricated and installed relative to a very public discussion about their potential discontinuation is something I would like to know as we head into our August 31 work session on this topic,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/futurism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/police-fake-3d-printed-flock-cameras-arrest.jpg?quality=85&w=1152\")