Auburn California Flock Surveillance Cameras Stolen and Dumped in a Canal - Gadget Review

Three Flock Safety ALPR units ripped from Auburn roadsides April 26; two recovered submerged and destroyed, one still missingSurveillance cameras designed to track every passing vehicle got yanked off their poles early one Sunday morning. Someone ripped three Flock Safety automated license plate reader (ALPR) cameras from mounts near Highway 49 and Nevada Street in Auburn, California, then dumped two of them into a canal. The devices — which log plates, timestamps, and location data for law enforcement — were recovered submerged and, according to ABC10, “completely destroyed.” The cameras caught footage of at least one suspect on the way down.What Happened and What’s at StakeThree surveillance cameras vanished from Auburn roadside mounts, exposing a growing vulnerability in public safety tech.Two cameras belonged to the Auburn Police Department; one to the Placer County Sheriff’s Office. All three were taken from the same stretch near Nevada Street and Marguerite Mine Road on the morning of April 26, according to KCRA. Auburn PD’s two units were found in a canal off Nevada Street — waterlogged, non-functional, and unrecoverable. The Sheriff’s camera remains missing.Police say they have video of at least one suspect but have released no public description, and the investigation remains active, according to ABC10. Flock Safety cameras are fixed, networked ALPR units — not standard dome cameras. They pack optical sensors, cellular connectivity, and onboard processing into weatherproof housings far pricier than a consumer-grade security camera, making each unit both mission-critical and expensive to replace.Auburn authorities describe the cameras as “crime-fighting” infrastructure — devices that help officers locate stolen vehicles and flag wanted suspects by scanning every passing plate, according to ABC10.Officials in Auburn, California, are panicking after a mysterious group of people stole the majority of their Flock cameras and threw them into a nearby canal.The incidents are continuing, and they have no idea how to stop them from happening again."They're completely… pic.twitter.com/XtEYy2nWNL— Shadow of Ezra (@ShadowofEzra) July 10, 2026 Think of Flock as a subscription surveillance service for local government — Silicon Valley’s SaaS model applied to policing, billed monthly to city budgets.