A 77-year-old Republican man is staging a solo protest against Flock cameras
A 77-year-old resident in St. Petersburg, Florida, is conducting a solo protest against the installation of private Flock surveillance cameras in his neighborhood. He argues that the automated license plate readers and AI-generated profiles constitute an invasion of privacy and a threat to civil liberties.
Why it matters
The protest highlights growing public concern regarding the intersection of private surveillance technology and constitutional privacy rights in local communities.
Carl Gunn, 77, was concerned for his privacy when he spotted a camera outside his St. Petersburg neighborhood of Coquina Key, mounted on a 12-foot tall black pole. Gunn later learned that the device was operated by a private, for-profit company, and that it automatically loads license plates and AI-generated profiles of each passing car into a massive database. The only 12-foot pole Gunn had was his pool skimmer. He taped a sign to it, grabbed a camping chair, and sat himself in front of the camera. This Saturday, all the camera saw was Gunn’s sign: “DOWN WITH FLOCK CAMERAS.”
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