You Can Now Destroy Flock Cameras for Cash in GTA V
A new mod for Grand Theft Auto V allows players to destroy virtual Flock surveillance cameras for in-game currency. The creator intends the mod as a form of cathartic release against real-world surveillance technology and its documented inaccuracies.
Why it matters
It highlights the growing public tension regarding the proliferation of automated license plate recognition (ALPR) systems and their impact on civil liberties.
The mod installs 235 Flock cameras around the fictional Los Santos, a riff on the real-life city of Los Angeles. Players can smash and shoot down the cameras and get paid $600 for each one they destroy, which Kolman priced based on a teardown of a Flock Falcon Flex Camera by the Iowa-based civil liberties group Eyes Off of Cedar Rapids. The in-game cameras log every time a player destroys and drives by one, and players can render a photo album of their interactions.
In real life, vigilantes have allegedly wrecked Flock cameras in their communities using spray-paint, saws, bullets, and even flaming projectiles. An NPR analysis found that Flock cameras have been vandalized in at least 36 states.
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