A Casa Grande, Arizona, resident used a city council meeting to make the argument against Casa Grande Flock cameras uncomfortably personal: he described a fake surveillance company that would track local officials, their spouses and their children, then told them he would not actually do it because it was wrong.
Jacob Petrosky spoke during public comment on July 20 and announced what he called Shepherd Safety, a supposed service to protect government officials and their families. According to 404 Media, Petrosky said the plan would use satellites and AI to monitor where officials went, where they stopped, who they met and when they returned home.
He also said he had begun building profiles on vehicles used by officials and their families, and would combine that information with Bluetooth signals, advertising IDs and commercial data. The pitch was meant to mirror the logic of the city’s camera network. At the end, Petrosky disclosed the proposal was satire and told council members, “I would never do this to you.”
Why are people protesting Casa Grande Flock cameras?
Casa Grande approved a 10-year, $10 million contract with Flock last year, according to 404 Media. Petrosky has since appeared at multiple council meetings to oppose the arrangement, saying he wants more privacy and, at minimum, a warrant requirement before officials can access data collected through the cameras.
Petrosky told 404 Media that he first noticed Flock cameras appearing around the city last year, and that he could not enter or leave his neighborhood on a paved road without passing one. He said roughly 200 cameras appeared in the city quickly enough to alarm him.
Pinal Central reported this month that a public records request showed about 140 of the planned 200 cameras had been installed as of late June. The outlet reported that about half were license plate reader cameras and half were pan-tilt-zoom cameras.
License plate readers capture plate numbers and related vehicle data so police can search or receive alerts. Pan-tilt-zoom cameras are steerable video cameras that can be aimed and magnified remotely. Connected systems can turn scattered cameras into something closer to a searchable municipal sensor grid, which is exactly why privacy fights over Flock keep showing up at city halls.
Casa Grande’s website describes the Safe City Initiative as a system intended to help solve crimes, increase public transparency and “prevent crime before it occurs.” The city’s page says it uses Flock OS to connect cameras and other technologies, and it links to Flock pages for a transparency portal and private camera registration.
On Flock’s page about Casa Grande, the company quotes Police Chief Mark McCrory saying investigators previously relied on slower manual work to gather video evidence and can now access footage faster through the city’s Real Time Information Center.
In May, the Casa Grande City Council voted unanimously to allow police access to elementary school cameras through the Flock partnership, according to Pinal Post.
Petrosky has also created DeFlockCG, a website and petition calling for limits on third-party access, penalties for misuse and, in one demand, removal of Flock from the city. 404 Media reported the petition had nearly 900 signatures.
The dispute is broader than Casa Grande. 404 Media reported last week that police departments have used Flock cameras at least hundreds of times to search for people based on descriptions such as clothing, body type or behavior, and that some searches referenced race or signs of political affiliation. Newsweek has reported that some U.S. cities and small communities have canceled Flock contracts over privacy and abuse concerns.
Casa Grande City Council members did not immediately respond to 404 Media’s request for comment. Petrosky told the outlet that his council speech was meant to make officials feel the privacy invasion he believes residents face, and that he does not want online attention. His stated goal is narrower and more concrete: put access to the camera data behind a warrant.
This story draws on original reporting from 404 Media.
