Darth Vader crashes San Diego hearing to defend Flock spy cams: ‘This is what the emperor needs’

The dark side has entered the surveillance debate.

A man dressed as Darth Vader crashed a San Diego City Council hearing Wednesday and delivered a bizarre, Star Wars-themed defense of the city’s controversial Flock cameras, complete with the Sith Lord’s trademark heavy breathing blasting through the council microphone.

The council addressed the masked man simply as “Darth Vader” as he took the podium during a Public Safety and Livable Neighborhoods Committee meeting.

“This is what the emperor needs. This technology will help us find the rebel scum and the hidden base on Hoth,” he said, invoking the frozen planet from “The Empire Strikes Back.”

Then things got even stranger.

The costumed speaker urged officials to use the cameras to track “rebel scum” as they moved “from playground to playground, from playground to pool, from pool to gymnasium.”

“Because we all know that the Flock cameras are not only following the license plate readers, they are following children,” he said.

The Darth Vader impersonator soon blasted off into a grab bag of San Diego’s other political flashpoints.

He brought up raising taxes to clear storm drains and clearing homeless encampments.

He also told council members they could use “doublespeak” to portray the police department as humanitarian.

Then he took aim directly at the council’s trustworthiness.

“And how will the people trust this City Council when this City Council continues to vote for surveillance technology that imprisons them? Ms. Campbell, you must work on your Jedi mind tricks,” he said, addressing Council member Jennifer Campbell.

He followed that with a demonstration, waving his hand toward the audience.

“Do it like this.”

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His final pitch was a request worthy of the Empire itself.

Vader said the Flock cameras should be used to “help us find Luke Skywalker as he traverses the universe in his X-wing.”

“This technology is a necessary, necessary force,” he concluded.

The theatrical testimony came as San Diego faces mounting scrutiny over the real-world surveillance system.

Late last year, city officials signed a one-year deal giving the San Diego Police Department access to “open source intelligence” and data from other law enforcement agencies, according to Axios, which reported on the arrangement in April.

The city now has more than 550 Flock cameras scattered across San Diego, according to the Flock tracking map DeFlock.

Flock’s technology includes license plate readers, video cameras and audio detection devices.

The system records license plate numbers along with vehicle information, including the make and model and even bumper stickers.

But the cameras have become a lightning rod.

Axios reported this week that local activists and some city officials are pushing for alternatives, joining critics around the country who have raised concerns about mass surveillance and the possibility of law enforcement misusing the technology.

Flock announced changes to its privacy and data retention policies amid the backlash.

The company said it would slash its recommended default data retention period from 30 days to seven days, reducing the amount of time information remains in its systems.

Law enforcement will also need a case code to search Flock data.

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