# When Americans destroy surveillance, history repeats

> A revolt against license plate cameras echoes the Boston Tea Party, as citizens reject technology they see as tyranny.
- Title: When Americans destroy surveillance, history repeats · Fortune
- Summary: A revolt against license plate cameras echoes the Boston Tea Party, as citizens reject technology they see as tyranny. Americans are destroying automated…
- Keywords: automated license plate readers, flock safety, surveillance, civil disobedience, american revolution, privacy, police abuse, boston tea party, Americans, destroy, history, repeats
- Source: Fortune — https://fortune.com/2026/09/22/flock-safety-surveillance-backlash-history-boston-tea-party
- Author: G. Patrick O'Brien
- Read time: 3 min
- Topics: automated license plate readers, flock safety, surveillance, civil disobedience, american revolution, privacy, police abuse, boston tea party
## Cameras everywhere, watching all
More than 130,000 automated license plate readers, or ALPRs, now operate on U.S. streets. These AI-powered cameras capture images of all passing vehicles and turn details into searchable datapoints. More than 5,000 law enforcement agencies use cameras made by Flock Safety.
## Police abuse the data
A Kansas police officer was sentenced to eighteen months probation in April two thousand twenty-three for using Flock cameras to stalk his estranged wife. A Florida officer was fired and arrested in March two thousand twenty-six for using ALPR data to stalk a woman he had previously harassed.
## Illegal sharing with feds
Activists filed a lawsuit against California police departments in October two thousand twenty-one for illegally sharing ALPR information with out-of-state and federal agencies, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
## Cities reject the cameras
Due to public outcry, cities across the U.S. have rejected and canceled contracts with Flock Safety. In September two thousand twenty-six, Florida's Department of Transportation revoked permits for ALPRs on its highway system.
## Citizens destroy the cameras
Growing backlash has not stopped at contracts. In at least thirty-six states, opponents of the technology have taken matters into their own hands, destroying or impairing ALPRs rather than wait for local governments to act.
## History repeats itself
A historian of the American Revolution sees parallels between the ALPR revolt and colonists' destructive pushback to late eighteenth-century British rule. The two hundred fiftieth anniversary of the nation's founding suggests Americans have not lost their rebellious spirit.
## Britain tightens control
After British forces defeated the French Empire in North America in seventeen sixty-three at tremendous cost, Prime Minister George Grenville led reforms to make colonists pay for their own military protection. What colonists really resented was the imperial government's growing influence in their lives.
## Colonists turn to violence
On the night of December sixteenth, seventeen seventy-three, members of the Sons of Liberty dumped nearly ten thousand pounds, almost two million dollars in today's dollars, worth of privately owned tea into Boston Harbor. Weeks later they attacked British supporter John Malcolm, covering him in tar and feathers.
## Surveillance backfires
In early seventeen seventy-five, around five thousand British troops roamed Boston streets, directed by General Thomas Gage to gather information on the Sons of Liberty and arrest leading dissidents. But heightened surveillance only pushed more citizens into the radicals' camp, setting the stage for revolution.
## Flock CEO invokes Franklin
In June two thousand twenty-six, Flock Safety CEO Garett Langley appealed to history, arguing that detractors misunderstand Ben Franklin's famous seventeen fifty-five quote: Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

> Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
## Adams' principle endures
Samuel Adams, a prominent Sons of Liberty leader, wrote in June seventeen seventy-one that Americans were united in defending constitutional and natural liberty when threatened. His belief that citizens must defend their liberties resonates today among those destroying surveillance cameras.
## Key takeaway

Americans are destroying automated license plate readers across 36 states, mirroring colonial resistance to British surveillance and control.