In only a few years, the surveillance start-up Flock has installed more than 100,000 license plate reader cameras across the United States.
But a grassroots movement upset over privacy concerns is fighting back — even going so far as systematically vandalising the equipment.
The first time he decided to trash one of the cameras, a self-styled vigilante wearing all black and known as Nomark says he was “super nervous”.
Now, after disabling about 30 of the devices near his home in the Minneapolis area, he told AFP: “I’m not really as scared anymore.”
Flock cameras are installed by police departments, homeowners’ associations and businesses, ostensibly to catch criminals in the act. Data is uploaded to Flock’s cloud and can be shared with subscribers.
But opponents are outraged at what they say is a dangerous tool that can be used to infringe on American privacy and civil liberties.
At just 20 years old, Nomark offers his 500,000 Instagram followers a how-to guide for rendering the cameras useless, raising awareness about the devices.
His detractors point out — correctly — that his actions are illegal, but like-minded individuals have followed suit nationwide over the past few weeks.
Instead of being dismissed as a radical fringe outfit, the anti-Flock movement is taking hold.
Its proponents have been active online for months, creating crowdsourced maps of cameras, sharing ways to block their lenses, and hailing the “heroes” who are arrested for destroying them.
The Facebook group DeFlock America has more than 600,000 members, and is gaining thousands more by the day.
Flock cameras differ from traditional surveillance cameras in that they do not record video footage.
Instead, they take still images of vehicles, capturing the make, model, colour, license plate data and other distinguishing features such as bumper stickers.
And unlike classic surveillance cameras, which are not networked, this data is stored for up to a month and shareable, sometimes across state lines.
Opponents say this gives police an overwhelming look into the private lives of law-abiding Americans.
Jon Bridges, a police official in Virginia’s state capital Richmond, says that for “practically any crime that has a connection with a vehicle or a vehicle involved, we will at least query the database to see if there’s anything there”. His department has used Flock since 2023.
Bridges gave an example of how useful the technology can be: during the investigation of a domestic-related double homicide in May, police quickly identified a suspect who fled the scene in his pick-up truck.
Detectives retrieved his license plate data and entered an alert in Flock’s system. When he appeared on another camera, officers in a neighbouring county arrested him.
Detractors fear that this allows officers to track vehicles without warrants, opening the door to a host of possible abuses of power.
According to an investigation done by The Washington Post, at least 50 police officers have been accused of misusing the Flock system, most of them to spy on the comings and goings of their romantic partners or exes.
In other cases reported in US media, cops used Flock to track women who had abortions — illegal in several US states. Some illegally sent data from the system to immigration agents.
Flock CEO Garrett Langley has accused some opponents of being “terrorists,” stoking the fire.
“There is really an incredible grassroots movement against Flock,” said Chad Marlow, senior policy counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, calling its growth “stunning”.
The movement has support on both the political left and right, notably from libertarians.
Former Fox News host and conservative heavyweight Tucker Carlson has called the vandals “decent, patriotic Americans” who are simply “taking matters into their own hands.”
Across the country, local groups are pushing their lawmakers to step back from Flock.
Steven Keener, a professor of criminology at Christopher Newport University in Virginia, said residents can meet with city council members or mayors to convince them to cancel their contracts with the surveillance company.
So far, such grassroots efforts are proving successful.
From Los Angeles to small towns in Virginia, more than 70 municipalities have ended their association with Flock in recent months, according to an ACLU tally.
For Keener, the movement stands out in a country riven by political divisions.
“Because decisions are at the local level, people realise that they can actually make a difference,” he told AFP.
LAHORE: Jamaat-i-Islami Pakistan (JI) has decided to intensify its campaign against the petroleum levy and inflation, announcing simultaneous sit-ins in all four provincial capitals on August 16 to press the government to withdraw the levy.
The decision was taken after extensive deliberations at a special meeting of JI’s central and provincial office-bearers, chaired by party chief Hafiz Naeemur Rehman at Mansoora on Saturday.
Rehman said the sit-ins would be staged outside the Punjab chief minister’s house in Lahore and the governor houses in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh and Balochistan.
Under the plan, the JI and its youth and women’s wings will participate in Independence Day activities on August 14, using the occasion to mobilise people around the party’s vision of a just system.
The JI chief added that the previous day’s nationwide protest had given the party’s campaign against the petroleum levy and inflation a new direction and fresh momentum; and that over 510 organised and peaceful protests were held across the country, with people from across Pakistan participating.
He said the protests had demonstrated that the JI was “becoming a symbol of national unity”, as people from Chitral, Malakand, Hazara and central Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, among others, had raised their voices against the petroleum levy.
The JI chief added that the public had rejected the levy and wanted petrol prices reduced to Rs225 per litre. Rehman accused the ruling elite of pushing ordinary citizens into an unbearable inflationary crisis while refusing to cut their own privileges and expenditures.
The party chief also claimed the rulers were “unwilling to give up official aircraft, reduce government vehicle expenses or end perks such as free fuel and electricity”, while students, motorcyclists, workers and farmers were being burdened with indirect taxes on petroleum products.
“Even people whose incomes were below the taxable threshold were effectively being taxed through fuel prices,” he added.
Rehman said the JI had previously taken to the streets to force the government to negotiate with independent power producers (IPP), after initially refusing to engage with them.
He added that negotiations had been held with 17 to 18 IPPs, resulting in some reduction in electricity prices, but the process was subsequently halted.
“The unresolved energy crisis and rising prices have fuelled an inflationary storm that is affecting every segment of society, particularly salaried people, the middle class and poor families,” Rehman said.
He warned that the public could no longer be left to suffer the consequences of government policies and said the rulers would have to deliver their rights.
Rehman also welcomed the recently signed defence agreement between Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkiye, describing it as “a positive development for the Muslim world”.
He said closer cooperation among Islamic countries could lead to a strong bloc and reduce Pakistan’s and the wider Muslim world’s dependence on external powers.
Additionally, he proposed expanding the defence cooperation to include Iran, Qatar, Bangladesh, Malaysia and Indonesia, saying efforts should gradually be made to bring all Muslim countries into such a framework.
“Muslim countries should overcome their differences, strengthen mutual cooperation and build collective capacity to face regional and global challenges,” Rehman emphasised.
A day prior, several major thoroughfares in Karachi were blocked or affected by traffic disruptions as the JI held sit-ins as part of the nationwide demonstration against the petroleum levy.
Responding to the protest, Sindh government spokesperson Sadia Javed said the petroleum levy was a federal matter and questioned why Karachi’s citizens were being “punished” through road closures.
“Jamaat-i-Islami is using the protest to score political points instead of serving the public,” she alleged, adding that the party should focus on the performance of its local government representatives to improve conditions for Karachi’s residents.
The government on Friday reduced the prices of petrol and high-speed diesel (HSD) by Rs2.20 and Rs1.50 per litre, respectively.
Following the revision, petrol will retail at Rs327.62 per litre while HSD will cost Rs380.86 per litre. The government continues to levy Rs114 per litre in taxes and duties on petrol and Rs100 per litre on HSD.
According to the Petroleum Division’s notification, the new prices will apply from August 8 to 10.
The diesel price has come down from a peak of Rs520.35 recorded on April 3. Its price had started rising from Rs281 per litre after the US-Iran war broke out on February 28.
The petrol price had peaked at Rs458.41 on April 3 after beginning its upward trajectory from Rs266 in the first week of March.
Earlier, Petroleum Minister Ali Pervaiz Malik announced that fuel prices would now be fixed on a daily basis due to fluctuations in international market prices following renewed hostilities between Iran and the US.
The government had been announcing weekly revisions to fuel prices since early March, alongside measures for the conservation of fuel amid possible oil supply disruptions due to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. The federal government in April also announced targeted relief measures to provide subsidised fuel.
The petroleum minister stated that the cabinet and the prime minister had decided to give the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) the responsibility of deciding fuel prices on a daily basis based on international market trends.
The daily pricing decision was rejected by the All Pakistan Dealers Association, which said it would consider a protest plan.
Petrol is mainly used in private transport, small vehicles, rickshaws and two-wheelers, and changes in its price affect the middle and lower-middle classes.
Similarly, changes in diesel prices also impact the public at large, as it is mainly used in the heavy transport sector, power plants and large generators.
Petrol and high-speed diesel (HSD) are the major revenue earners, with monthly sales of about 700,000 to 800,000 tonnes, compared to just 10,000 tonnes of monthly demand for kerosene.
