According to The Hill, a man in a full Darth Vader costume spoke during public comment at a San Diego City Council committee meeting. Members of the committee called him Darth Vader when they invited him to the podium. The costume’s heavy breathing could be heard through the chamber microphone.
He addressed the Public Safety and Livable Neighborhoods Committee. Like other speakers that day, he was given two minutes. He talked about Flock cameras, which photograph license plates and record vehicle details for police use.
“The Emperor is a fan of Flock,” he said, “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.”
Speaker given two minutes at Public Safety committee meeting
He went on: “Because we all know that the Flock cameras are not only following the license plate readers, they are following children. They are following children in parks and gymnasiums, and we need this. I need this so I can stalk my ex-girlfriend.”
He asked how residents would trust the City Council if it kept voting “for surveillance technology that imprisons them.” He then spoke to Council member Jennifer Campbell. “Ms. Campbell, you must work on your Jedi mind tricks,” he said. He raised his hand toward the audience and added, “Do it like this.”
“This is what the emperor needs,” he said. “This technology will help us find the rebel scum and the hidden base on Hoth.” He also said the cameras would help find Luke Skywalker “as he traverses the universe in his X-wing.” He closed with this line: “This technology is a necessary, necessary force.”
Some people in the audience held signs from the American Civil Liberties Union that read “Get the Flock Out!” the Los Angeles Times reported. Elsewhere, a viral video of a camera cut down beside a road shows another man saying the devices were unconstitutional.
The San Diego Police Department’s 2025 Annual Surveillance Report says Flock cameras are mounted at about 500 locations. Besides plate numbers, the cameras record the date, time, and place of each scan, along with details such as make, model, and color, the report states.
The department says the information is encrypted and sent to a database accessible only to San Diego police. Data is kept for 30 days and then deleted unless it is part of an active case, according to the department.
The same report says officers ran more than 244,000 investigative searches of the data last year and that it played a “key role in advancing 361 cases.” Police say the records helped recover 259 stolen vehicles, locate four missing people, and assist in investigations of about nine of the city’s 28 homicides in 2025.
In a November presentation to the same committee, 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 told the committee the “vast majority of data is never viewed.” He also said the department does not share the data with federal agencies, out-of-state law enforcement, or private companies.
Other reports put the number of Flock cameras in San Diego at more than 550, based on a public map called DeFlock. Late last year, city officials signed a one-year agreement that gave police access to additional open-source intelligence tools, Axios reported in April.
The Washington Post has reported at least 50 cases around the country in which officers were accused of misusing access to similar camera networks, often to look up former partners. In a separate case, a West Virginia man faces felony charges after being accused of destroying Flock cameras.
Published: Aug 23, 2026 12:00 pm