Fresno police are searching for a 22-year-old man already on felony probation after someone tore two privately owned Flock Safety cameras off their mounts near North Woodrow Avenue and East San Gabriel Avenue, making off with roughly $5,000 in surveillance equipment. Detectives have named him as Ryan Kitchener, and they say a second suspect involved in the theft has not yet been identified.
According to the Fresno Police Department, officers responded to a grand theft report at approximately 4:15 a.m. on July 11, when two subjects stole the two privately owned Flock cameras from the intersection. Detectives have identified Kitchener as one of the suspects and say he is currently wanted for grand theft. Investigators are asking anyone with information about Kitchener's whereabouts, the identity of the second suspect, or other details connected to the case to come forward.
A Felony Record Already on the Books
Kitchener is currently on felony probation, according to the police department's account. That status traces back to March 2024, when Clovis Police detectives arrested him during a burglary-related search warrant, booking him on suspicion of possessing stolen property and being a convicted felon in possession of body armor, per the Clovis Police Department. He was one of six people detained at a Clovis residence during that multi-agency property crime investigation.
The dollar value of the stolen cameras carries its own legal weight. Under California Penal Code Section 487, grand theft applies once stolen property exceeds $950 in value, and the offense functions as a wobbler that prosecutors can file as a felony carrying up to three years in prison, according to Eisner Gorin LLP. At an estimated $5,000, the stolen equipment clears that threshold well past the minimum.
Why Fresno Values Its Camera Network So Highly
The theft lands in the middle of a heated local conversation about automated license plate readers. Fresno Police Chief Mindy Casto said in July that Flock Safety cameras helped further more than 70% of the city's homicide investigations during 2026, according to YourCentralValley's coverage of a community meeting. Department officials have framed the cameras as a force multiplier in solving violent crime.
Fresno recorded 22 homicides in 2025, a 51-year low, down from 74 in 2020, and annual shootings fell from 732 to 162 over that same stretch, per statistics reported by ABC30 Action News. Police have credited expanded surveillance technology as part of what has helped drive those numbers down. That track record is part of why the city entered a three-year, $1,498,690 contract with Flock Safety in February 2024 to install fixed cameras across Fresno, shifting the department away from patrol-car mounted readers toward stationary intersection units, a move Hoodline detailed in an earlier report on the camera network.
Privacy Pushback Meets a Growing Network
Not everyone in Fresno is on board. Residents packed a community forum at the Ted C. Wills Community Center in July to raise concerns about mass surveillance, data retention, and privacy, according to ABC30's report on the meeting, where police officials worked to defend the cameras' safety benefits. The debate has only intensified since, as Fresno officials in August announced plans for a voluntary Community Connect program that would let homeowners and Neighborhood Watch groups share private camera feeds directly with police, an initiative The Fresno Bee reported was aimed at helping neighborhoods capture localized property crimes like mailbox theft.
The theft of the Woodrow and San Gabriel avenue cameras also fits inside a much larger pattern playing out nationwide. Flock Safety cameras have been targeted by theft, power-line cutting, or outright destruction in at least 23 states in August, including an entire eight-camera network stolen in Winona, Minnesota, according to LiveNOW from FOX. Flock Safety operates more than 120,000 license plate cameras across 49 states, per the same report, and the company's rapid growth has made it a lightning rod.
The American Civil Liberties Union has amplified that pushback, warning in August that the systems carry risks of warrantless location tracking, inaccurate hits, and federal law enforcement access to the data, according to the ACLU. Multiple California cities have suspended or re-evaluated their Flock contracts amid public outcry, the organization notes. Whether the stolen Fresno cameras were tied into any police-accessible network, or whether investigators have recovered footage identifying the second suspect, remains unclear.
Anyone with information about Kitchener's location, the second suspect's identity, or other case details is asked to contact Crime Stoppers anonymously at (559) 498-STOP (7867).
