In a galaxy not so far, far away — well, in San Diego — the controversial police use of Flock surveillance cameras that photograph and record license plate numbers has at least one prominent supporter.
Darth Vader.
“The Emperor is a fan of Flock,” a person wearing a full-body costume of the “Star Wars” villain told a committee of the San Diego City Council this week, referencing Darth Vader’s evil, power-hungry boss, Emperor Palpatine, ruler of the Galactic Empire.
“And we must continue utilizing Flock technologies so that we can follow and surveil the Rebel scum as they move from playground to playground, from playground to pool, from pool to gymnasium,” the person said during public comments at a Wednesday meeting of the Public Safety and Livable Neighborhoods Committee.
The cosplayer, who breathed heavily into the microphone a la the movie villain, was formally called to the podium by the name Darth Vader.
It was a stance a bit out of sync with silver screen Darth, who famously told an Imperial stooge who got too braggadocious about the Empire’s planet-destroying Death Star: “Don’t be too proud of this technological terror you’ve constructed.”
But in a twist not quite as big as Darth telling Luke Skywalker he was his daddy, the bad guy in black showed up to the government meeting in San Diego to be sarcastic about Flock cameras. He didn’t actually support them at all.
Nor, it turns out, did a lot of people in the audience, who hoisted signs from the American Civil Liberties Union reading: “Get the Flock Out!”
The cosplayer’s sarcastic endorsement comes as Flock Safety — the company whose more than 120,000 artificial intelligence-enabled license plate readers can be found along roadsides in every state but Alaska — comes under increasing scrutiny by lawmakers, civil rights groups and members of the public who have expressed privacy concerns.
Dozens of mostly smaller cities have deactivated their Flock cameras or ended contracts with the company over concerns that it provides data to the Trump administration that can be used to track down immigrants for deportation.
And recent reporting by the Washington Post uncovered at least 50 instances nationwide in which law enforcement officials were accused of misusing their access to the cameras, largely to stalk former romantic partners or citizens.
Last month, the Los Angeles Police Department announced it was pausing its relationship with Flock, but police officials later said they were in the process of negotiating a new deal with the company that would include more data-sharing safeguards.
Both Mayor Karen Bass and her opponent in the November mayoral election, Councilmember Nithya Raman, have said the city should stop working with Flock.
The company, whose automated license readers document plate data as vehicles drive past, says it has partnerships with 5,000 law enforcement agencies nationwide.
Amid public backlash, the company announced this month several platform changes, including a shorter data retention window and audit tools for law enforcement customers intended to flag abnormal search behavior.
In San Diego, Flock cameras are affixed to streetlights in about 500 locations, according to the 2025 Annual Surveillance Report by the San Diego Police Department.
In addition to plate numbers, the report states, the cameras record the date, time and location of the scan, as well as vehicle descriptors such as make, model and color.
The information is encrypted and transmitted to a secure database that can be accessed only by San Diego police personnel, according to the department. The data is saved for 30 days and automatically deleted unless it is being used as evidence in an active investigation, according to the department.
The report says San Diego police officers last year conducted more than 244,000 investigative searches of the data and that it played a “key role in advancing 361 cases.”
The data, per the department, helped officers recover 259 stolen vehicles and find four missing people, as well as aiding the investigations of around nine of the city’s 28 homicides in 2025.
In a presentation to the Public Safety and Livable Neighborhoods Committee in November, San Diego Police Capt. Charles Lara said the technology “has been truly game-changing for our department, especially while we continue to operate with hundreds of officers below ideal staffing levels.”
Lt. Kristopher McAndrew said the “vast majority of data is never viewed” and that the police department does not share data with federal or out-of-state law enforcement agencies or private entities.
At the meeting this week, Darth Vader — who, like everyone else who approached the podium, was allotted two minutes of speaking time — said of the Flock camera system: “I need this so I can stalk my ex-girlfriend.”
He asked the City Council members how residents will continue to trust them when they continue to vote “for surveillance technology that imprisons them.”
He advised one of the council members to work on her Jedi mind tricks to fool them, then raised his hand to the audience, saying: “Do it like this.”
“This technology will help us find the Rebel scum and their hidden base on Hoth,” he said, referencing the ice planet in the “Star Wars” universe. “This technology will help us find Luke Skywalker as he traverses the universe in his X-wing. This technology is a necessary, necessary force.”
