cltampa.com
Carl Gunn in St. Petersburg, Florida on July 25, 2026. Photo by Valerie Smith. Credit: Valerie Smith / Creative Loafing Tampa Bay
Carl Gunn, 77, was concerned for his privacy when he spotted a camera outside his St. Petersburg neighborhood of Coquina Key, mounted on a 12-foot tall black pole. Gunn later learned that the device was operated by a private, for-profit company, and that it automatically loads license plates and AI-generated profiles of each passing car into a massive database.
The only 12-foot pole Gunn had was his pool skimmer. He taped a sign to it, grabbed a camping chair, and sat himself in front of the camera. This Saturday, all the camera saw was Gunn’s sign: “DOWN WITH FLOCK CAMERAS.”
“This is just another thing to take our information and to spy on us,” Gunn told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay. “I have a constitutional right to my privacy. I’m a law-abiding citizen, and I don’t need anyone sticking their nose in my business. And if they do, I’m going to chop it off.”
This was Gunn’s second protest against Flock cameras, his first being a week prior at a camera a few blocks away. CL interviewed Gunn as he sat under the sun with his sign and watched the public reaction to his protest.
Gunn was eventually joined by a supportive stranger who brought him a shade umbrella and a cold soda. Passing drivers honked in support, and one even dropped off cold drinks and snacks out of her passenger window.
A person who would only identify themselves as ‘Carter C’ joins Carl Gunn in St. Petersburg, Florida on July 25, 2026. Photo by Valerie Smith. Credit: Valerie Smith / Creative Loafing Tampa Bay
Gunn told CL that officers in two St. Petersburg police cruisers stopped by to question him for about 10–15 minutes before driving off. Footage shared with CL appears to show two cruisers stopped in the road beside Gunn as the driver taking the video shouts: “Yo, what’s your name? I’ll come bail you out!”
Flock cameras are run by a private company and have been in St. Petersburg since 2022. The St. Petersburg Police Department has said that the cameras help solve crimes. Civil liberties organizations and bipartisan lawmakers say Flock cameras are an unprecedented mass surveillance tool that could change the landscape of personal freedom nationwide.
Like any security camera, Flock cameras collect video evidence constantly. Unlike other cameras, they automatically read each license plate, collect every detail about a scene through AI and put it all in a searchable database.
A police officer can search 100,000 cameras nationwide to see if a fugitive has passed any Flock cameras, or get an alert when they do. They can also search for identifying features like make, model, color or even unique dents and bumper stickers.
Police can also use the cameras to surveil protestors and stalk ex-lovers—or strangers they find attractive.
The cameras have raised questions on constitutionality and have led to wrongful arrests across the county.
Carl Gunn in St. Petersburg, Florida on July 25, 2026. Photo by Valerie Smith. Credit: Valerie Smith / Creative Loafing Tampa Bay
“We’re private citizens; we don’t need this stuff,” Gunn told CL. “And they’re reporting now that the Chinese have already picked up all of our voter registrations. They’re picking up more information on us, on how we live, and you know there’s a reason for it.”
Experts have said that obtaining voter data is fairly common and that it doesn’t necessarily indicate a breach of voting systems or election interference.
Gunn’s protest was inspired in part by a trend where people damage Flock cameras in an effort to reduce surveillance in their cities. Instead, he wanted to find a legal, nondestructive way to protest and inhibit Flock. “They don’t own the air,” Gunn told CL.
A screenshot of deflock.org, a website that logs Flock camera locations
St. Petersburg already has around 50 Flock cameras. The DeFlock website has a map showing their locations, and the FlockHopper app can be used to navigate without passing any of them. Law enforcement across the country—including immigration agents—may request access to the data.
One camera covers the entry to the St. Pete Pier. Another watches Wildwood Park and a youth rec center in south St. Pete. Nine Flock cameras blanket a retail complex surrounding Lowes and Home Depot.
According to records loaded into Flock monitoring website Have I Been Flocked, St. Pete police have used the cameras to search for suspects in federal investigations targeting noncitizens, vandalism cases, and, in one instance, littering.
“In a democracy, the government shouldn’t be watching its citizens all the time just in case we do something wrong,” ACLU Senior Policy Analyst Jay Stanley said in 2025. “It’s one thing if a police officer out on a street sees something suspicious in public and reacts. But this is an entirely different matter.”
Flock, founded in 2017, “surpassed $300 million in annual recurring revenue in early 2025, a 70 percent increase year over year,” according to the TDG wealth management company.
“The Flock company, they’re doing this for profit,” Gunn told CL. “We didn’t give them permission to do it on us. If they want to do it for profit, I want my paycheck.”
Carl Gunn’s ‘Down With Flock Cameras’ sign in St. Petersburg, Florida on July 25, 2026. Credit: Valerie Smith / Creative Loafing Tampa Bay
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This article appears in July 23 – 29, 2026.
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