Three 19-year-olds in South Carolina are facing charges after authorities say they cut down a Flock Safety camera pole, then struck its battery pack with a hammer until it exploded and caught fire.
The incident happened in the early hours of Aug. 15 on Harmony Church Road in the Edgemoor community of Chester County, WBTV reported, citing the Chester County Sheriff’s Office.
According to investigators, the group chopped down the pole before hammering the equipment, causing the battery to ignite. The sheriff’s office put the total damage at more than $5,000, according to WBTV.
Blaze Fuller, Samuel Carlisle and James Ryerson, all 19, were arrested on charges of criminal conspiracy and malicious injury to personal property, jail records reviewed by News Outlet show.
Fuller was booked on Aug. 18 and released the next day after posting a $5,000 bond. Carlisle and Ryerson were likewise booked Aug. 18 and released Aug. 19, according to the records.
For at least one nearby resident, the fire raised concerns that the damage could have spread beyond the camera equipment.
“My house is over here,” Edgemoor resident David Cunupp told WBTV, pointing toward his property. “Could’ve caught fire and burned if it wasn’t for the rain.”
Cunupp said he did not necessarily object to the use of the cameras, but he expressed unease about a private company operating the surveillance technology.
“They could be used for good, but I don’t see where a private company’s got access or running it instead of the DMV or the government,” Cunupp told the outlet.
News Outlet reached out to the Chester County Sheriff’s Office for comment.
The alleged fiery takedown comes as tensions over Flock’s automated license plate reader network mount nationwide, with privacy advocates, local officials and lawmakers challenging the spread of vehicle-location databases.
FILE – An aerial view shows a Flock Safety camera mounted on a light pole in Burbank, Calif., on Aug. 3, 2026. Flock Safety’s automated license plate reader cameras have been deployed in over 120,000 locations across 49 states, using artificial intelligence to identify vehicles by their license plates, make, model and color to help law enforcement investigate crimes, while also drawing criticism from privacy advocates over concerns about mass surveillance and the collection of motorists’ location data. (Getty Images)
Opponents of the cameras have condemned vandalism and instead called for the technology to be challenged through lawful action.
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism, launched an investigation into Flock this week, saying the company has built an “unprecedented national surveillance network” with more than 120,000 cameras across 49 states and more than 20 billion vehicle scans each month.
FILE – A Flock Safety camera is shown mounted to a light pole on August 3, 2026 in Beverly Hills, California. Sen. Hawley, R-Mo., launched an investigation into Flock this week. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
“Instead of serving discrete local investigations, as contemplated by our constitutional processes and safeguards, these camera networks harness artificial intelligence to pool what they capture into a national database that customers can search,” Hawley wrote in a letter to Flock CEO Garrett Langley.
Flock spokesperson Paris Lewbel previously told News Outlet the company would respond directly to Hawley’s questions and looked forward to explaining “the safeguards built into our platform and how law enforcement agencies use Flock to solve crime and find missing people.”
FILE – Protesters rally against the use of Flock cameras on Friday, April 3, 2026, outside City Hall in Troy, NY. (Jim Franco/ Times Union via Getty Images)
The dispute has played out through local government action in Texas. Hood County officials voted to end their relationship with Flock and later directed that the county’s three cameras be disconnected and covered until they could be removed.
Constable John Shirley shared photos of the covered cameras in a Facebook post, calling it “a good day for the Freedom of the people of Hood County.”
He said the cameras had been “constantly scanning and recording regular folks just going about their day.”
FILE – Officials in Hood County, Texas, cover a Flock automated license plate reader camera after the county ended its relationship with the company. (Hood County Constable, Precinct 2 Facebook)
“That kind of permanent, warrantless tracking doesn’t belong in a free society,” Shirley wrote. “Privacy isn’t optional, and mass surveillance isn’t how we do things here.”
In a later Facebook post, Shirley said he supports technology that helps police solve crimes, locate missing people and find dangerous suspects, but argued public safety cannot end the conversation about individual liberty.
“We can have good policing and still insist on boundaries,” Shirley wrote. “We can use technology without giving government unlimited surveillance capability.”
The debate has already pushed communities from Texas to Arizona, and nationwide, to reconsider or end their Flock contracts, citing worries about data sharing, privacy and misuse.
