ATLANTIC BEACH, Fla. – A 19-year-old Jacksonville Beach man is facing multiple criminal mischief charges after police said he was caught on surveillance video spray-painting over Flock cameras in Atlantic Beach, Neptune Beach and Jacksonville Beach.
Atlantic Beach police said it will cost $800 to replace the three cameras the man is accused of damaging in that city, for a total of $2,400. They charged him with three counts of criminal mischief over $200, but less than $1,000.
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Detectives said the man also admitted during an interview to vandalizing two cameras in Neptune Beach, two in Jacksonville Beach and one in Bullock County, Georgia.
The brazen allegations follow a national trend, as the controversial cameras have become targets of criticism, paint and saws.
According to CNN, someone cut down surveillance cameras owned by the company Flock Safety with an electric saw in New York, threw paint on them in California, and rammed a truck into them in Idaho.
According to his arrest report from the Atlantic Beach Police Department, the teen used silver and gold spray paint on the three Flock cameras in Atlantic Beach.
Officers discovered the damage on June 28, after realizing that the three cameras had not issued an alert in several days.
Investigators said that after checking the area around the Flock cameras, they found surveillance video nearby that showed a red Mazda 5-door car parking in a lot near the camera and a man getting out with a ladder before running toward the Flock camera.
Once they identified the car, Atlantic Beach investigators reviewed earlier footage from the Flock cameras that were later vandalized and spotted the same car in the area of the other cameras as well.
They used state records to identify the car’s owner, who was later pulled over by Jacksonville Beach police on July 4.
Jacksonville Beach police booked the man on two counts of felony vandalism for the damage to the Jacksonville Beach cameras, and the Jacksonville Beach investigator said the man “made statements about disliking Flock cameras and (that he) doesn’t trust license plate readers.”
Neptune Beach police interviewed the man when he was in the Duval County jail on the Jacksonville Beach charges, and after he was released, he turned himself in to Atlantic Beach police on the charges there.
Law enforcement agencies have defended the use of the cameras and say they are important investigative tools.
Data from the last two years showed that LPRs had helped find 151 missing persons, recover 597 stolen vehicles, track down 220 wanted people and charge 782 people in St. Johns County.
One notable case involved a Texas man with five warrants who was found in Durbin Village with a missing teen. Thanks to the license plate reader, the teen was saved, and the man was arrested.
In Central Florida, when 13-year-old Madeline Soto was first reported missing in 2024, Kissimmee Police used LPRs to prove her mother’s boyfriend lied about driving the teen to school that morning.
Instead, the LPR data revealed that Stephan Sterns, who was later convicted of raping and murdering Soto, drove his car in the opposite direction of the school.
Information from LPRs and other traffic cameras helped search teams successfully narrow down the location where Soto’s body was found, court records show.
But in one case that highlighted concerns, a Central Florida sheriff suspended Flock cameras after scandal involving a detective who improperly accessed multiple law enforcement databases for personal reasons.
Last week, the Nassau County Sheriff’s Office released a video addressing the topic, saying Flock cameras do not identify who’s driving a vehicle.
“They capture a vehicle’s license plate along with characteristics like its make, model and color. That information is available only to authorized personnel for legitimate law enforcement purposes and is governed by agency policy and state law,” the sheriff’s office said.