The use of Flock cameras has become a lightning-rod issue across America, as more police departments and city councils have decided to end their contracts with the company amid incidents of vandals and thieves either destroying or stealing the license plate readers. However, one police department in Florida decided to fight back and was able to fool a 24-year-old man who tried to cut down a decoy Flock camera made out of 3D-printed plastic. And now the would-be saboteur has been charged with three felonies.
Man faces three felonies for destroying decoy Flock camera
Police in Florida say that 24-year-old Evan Meyer from Oviedo attempted to use a pair of garden shears to cut down a fake Flock camera on August 20 that was set up as a 3D-printed decoy, according to News 6 Orlando.
At around 1:00 a.m., near the intersection of Lockwood Boulevard and Arrowroot Place, Meyer was spotted wearing black clothing, a face mask, and gloves as he tried to tear down the “bait” license plate reader, according to an arrest affidavit. He cut the fake camera from its mount, throwing it to the ground where it shattered into multiple pieces, before running away. However, the police were waiting for him, and after they issued commands and activated emergency lights, they took Meyer into custody without further incident.
The department says it installed these clone-style cameras, designed to appear like Flock cameras, because several of the genuine articles have been stolen at that particular intersection between July 23 and August 3. Replacing a stolen or destroyed Flock camera generally costs around $800 in addition to installation costs.
A representative of the Oviedo Police Department told 404 Media that the decoy Flock camera “was produced by an officer at their home using their personally owned 3D printer and donated [it] to the agency,” noting that the department does not own a 3D printer of its own.
Meyer later told officers in a post-Miranda interview that he was concerned about the use of license plate readers and was aware of criticism against Flock Safety. He said that his residence on River Birch Avenue was close to two Flock cameras in his neighborhood, making him feel like there was a “constant eye” watching him. That’s why he took his father’s pruning shears, walked toward the camera closest to his home, and tried to remove it.
The suspect thought that he was destroying an actual Flock camera, which he estimated to cost between $1,000 and $5,000, suggesting to investigators that he knew that they would cost a lot to replace. While he was unaware that the camera was fake, authorities argue that it was his intent to destroy expensive property that was operational. It is unknown, though, if Meyer was one of the thieves who had stolen the real Flock cameras in prior incidents.
Meyer faces three felony charges: grand theft involving property valued between $750 and $5,000, criminal mischief causing more than $1,000 in damage, and damaging or taking computer, electronic device or related equipment. His total bond is $7,500.
Community shares their concerns about the decoy cameras
However, several residents in the area were not pleased about the installation of the decoy cameras. One driver told News 6 Orlando that the police should have alerted the public first: “If they’re going to be doing that, then yeah, they should go and be telling people.”
Another resident felt that the Flock cameras amounted to “an invasion of privacy” and worried about “who is doing all this surveillance and what kind of information they are gathering.”
Megan Sladek, the mayor of Oviedo, stated on social media that she didn’t know about the sting operation and the decoy cameras until she read about it in the news. “That is something I wasn’t aware of,” she wrote, “and nobody on City Council is.”
That said, Sladek said that vandalizing public property is not acceptable and that the decoy cameras did not cost the city any money. She wrote that the majority of the city council had “agreed to consider ending Flock” on Monday “just days before this incident.”
