A man dressed as Darth Vader appeared before the San Diego City Council on Wednesday to deliver a Star Wars-themed mocking endorsement of the city’s contested Flock surveillance cameras.
The New York Post reports that the costumed visitor addressed the Public Safety and Livable Neighborhoods Committee as officials debated the city’s growing network of camera surveillance. Council members referred to him only as “Darth Vader” as he took his turn at the microphone.
“This is what the emperor needs. This technology will help us find the rebel scum and the hidden base on Hoth,” he told the committee, mocking Flock cameras in the language of the Star Wars saga.
He didn’t stop there. The impersonator claimed the cameras do more than read license plates. “Because we all know that the Flock cameras are not only following the license plate readers, they are following children,” he said, adding that the system tracks people “from playground to playground, from playground to pool, from pool to gymnasium.”
He also touched on more mundane local issues, weighing in on proposals to raise taxes for storm drain maintenance and on the city’s efforts to clear homeless encampments. At one point he suggested council members lean on “doublespeak” to make the police department appear humanitarian.
Then he turned toward Council member Jennifer Campbell directly. “And how will the people trust this City Council when this City Council continues to vote for surveillance technology that imprisons them? Ms. Campbell, you must work on your Jedi mind tricks,” he said, before waving his hand at the audience and instructing, “Do it like this.”
He wrapped up his testimony with a full endorsement of the technology. “This technology is a necessary, necessary force,” he said, adding a final request that the cameras be used to “help us find Luke Skywalker as he traverses the universe in his X-wing.”
The theatrical appearance came as San Diego’s surveillance footprint has expanded rapidly. Axios noted in an April report that city officials had signed a one-year agreement late last year that gave the San Diego Police Department access to “open source intelligence” and data shared by other law enforcement agencies. The DeFlock tracking map shows more than 550 Flock cameras now positioned around the city.
Flock’s devices pair license-plate readers with video cameras and audio detection technology, capturing not only plate numbers but also details such as a vehicle’s make, model and even its bumper stickers.
Breitbart News reported last week that Flock claims it will introduce new safety and abuse features to protect privacy in response to widespread backlash:
In response to public backlash to the ever-growing network of automated license plate readers (ALPRs), the company is working on reforms that “includes enhanced privacy protections, strengthening of control for local law enforcement offices, and enhanced accountability measures,” Fox Business reported Thursday.
“To start, Flock is reducing its standard data retention window from 30 days to seven. Previously, all data captured by one of the company’s more than 119,000 cameras nationwide was deleted after the 30-day window,” according to the report. “Now, the company announced on Thursday that data will only live on Flock servers for one week.”
However, Flock is creating a feature called “Evidence Mode,” which will allow law enforcement agencies to preserve data for longer based on state and local policies if they need more time to investigate, according to the report. Law enforcement agencies often counter public concerns about violations of privacy by pointing out that they use the system to catch criminals.
Read more at the New York Post here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of AI, free speech, and online censorship.