During the public comment portion of a recent San Diego city council meeting, the council called for the next comment to take the podium: "Darth Vader?" As he approached the microphone in his black helmet and cape, his heavy breathing reached the mic before he did.

At the Public Safety and Livable Neighborhoods Committee Meeting on August 19, Vader — whose identity is not revealed during the meeting — spoke passionately in support of Flock in San Diego.

"The emperor is a fan of Flock, 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," Vader said. "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. How will the people trust this city council when this city council continues to vote for surveillance technology that imprisons them?" 

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Vader asked the council members to "work their Jedi mind tricks" and use "double speaking" to convince people that more surveillance is good. He referenced a June 2023 city council vote in favor of San Diego's Unsafe Camping Ordinance, which critics say effectively criminalized homelessness.

"This is what the emperor needs. This technology will help us find the rebel scum and their hidden base on Hoth. This technology will help us find Luke Skywalker as he traverses the universe in his X-wing. This technology is a necessary, necessary force," Vader said. 

There are more than 550 Flock cameras installed around the city of San Diego, according to publicly available data aggregated by Flock tracking map DeFlock. 

San Diego signed a year-long deal to join Flock's Nova service, giving the San Diego Police Department (SDPD) access to "open source intelligence" and data from other law enforcement agencies, Axios reported in April. 

As 404 Media recently reported, Nova supplements license plate data with personal information sourced from other companies and the wider web. “You're going to be able to access data and jump from LPR to person and understand what that context is, link to other people that are related to that person [...] marriage or through gang affiliation, et cetera,” a Flock employee said during an internal company meeting, according to an audio recording obtained by 404 Media. “There’s very powerful linking.”

‘I Would Never Do This To You:’ Protesting Flock, Arizona Man Presents Plan to Surveil Government Officials“They didn’t understand it was satire in the beginning until the end,” Casa Grande, Arizona resident Jacob Petrosky told 404 Media. “They were not happy, they were very upset.”404 MediaSamantha Cole

In June, SDPD stopped sharing surveillance data with federal authorities and other out-of-state agencies following Attorney General Rob Bonta's office warning the police the actions were likely violating state law that prohibits local police departments from sharing ALPR data with outside law enforcement agencies, according to local news outlet KPBS.

A San Diego man recently spent a month in jail after a Flock camera wrongfully flagged him for a felony crime involving brandishing a handgun, his attorney claims. That man is now preparing to sue the city, the Times of San Diego reported. 

If you are the Sith Lord who spoke at the August 19 meeting, please get in touch: sam@404media.co.