A New Baltimore tattoo shop owner's tongue-in-cheek offer of a free tattoo in exchange for a Flock license plate camera has racked up more than 2 million views on Instagram, tapping into a growing regional fight over automated police surveillance. Steven Jean, who owns The Alien Body Shop, says the post was meant as satire and entertainment, not an invitation to vandalize public property.
Jean's offer came as CBS News Detroit spotted several Flock cameras installed around New Baltimore, where the city council approved a $7,500 agreement for two of the devices in 2025. According to CBS News Detroit, Jean said Flock cameras can be beneficial but suggested they might be better placed near locations where serious crimes could be committed, rather than scattered broadly through neighborhoods. He said some people are genuinely concerned about how the technology is used, and that the reaction to his post shows just how strongly the public feels about it.
Flock camera technology captures license plates and other vehicle information as cars pass through an area, and the systems have become a growing point of debate in Metro Detroit communities, the outlet's report notes. Jean said his offer was intended to start a conversation, not encourage people to remove or damage the cameras — even though, per the same report, people have since sent him photos and videos of themselves damaging Flock cameras. He said people should not actually bring him a Flock camera at his shop, though he remains open to doing tattoos inspired by the devices. One person even claimed to Jean that they had been arrested for vandalizing a camera, though that claim has not been independently confirmed.
A Former Assistant Chief Weighs In on Retention and Misuse
Steve Dolunt, a former Detroit police assistant chief, told the station that limits should exist on how long Flock camera information is retained, recommending agencies hold the data for a week or two unless there's an active investigation underway. He said the cameras can be useful tools when investigating serious crimes, but argued penalties should be stricter when an officer uses the technology for non-police purposes. Dolunt also drew a distinction between accidentally hitting a Flock camera with a vehicle and intentionally damaging one, and warned that people who deliberately paint over the devices could face jail time.
Damaging or removing someone else's property can carry real legal consequences in Michigan. Under Michigan Compiled Laws Section 750.377a, maliciously destroying personal property valued between $200 and $1,000 is a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail, according to Gentry Nalley Law, while damage between $1,000 and $20,000 becomes a felony carrying up to five years in prison, with enhanced sentences possible for repeat offenders or higher-dollar damage.
Vandalism and Legislative Pushback Spread Across the Region
New Baltimore's viral moment lands amid a wave of physical resistance to Flock cameras across southeastern Michigan. The Livingston County Sheriff's Office temporarily dismantled all 25 of its active Flock cameras earlier this month after six devices were severed or damaged with baseball bats, causing roughly $5,000 in property destruction, as reported by CBS News Detroit. County officials plan to redeploy the cameras once hardened mountings or backup surveillance measures are in place. In July, Wayne police opened a criminal investigation after a Flock camera was cut down at its base near Michigan Avenue and Wayne Road, an incident that The Metro Detroit News tied to a broader pattern of cutting attacks reported by neighboring agencies around the same time.
State lawmakers are also moving to rein in the technology. Michigan Sen. Jim Runestad introduced Senate Bill 1131 in July, which would require police to get a search warrant before accessing license plate reader databases — except during active criminal, missing person, or stolen vehicle investigations — and would cap routine data retention at 14 days, according to WTVB. Separately, Reps. Jimmie Wilson and Doug Wozniak introduced House Bills 5492 and 5493 in January, a bipartisan push that would force ALPR data to be purged after 30 days, require quarterly public reports on system searches and data sharing, and let citizens sue over illegal data collection, per the Mackinac Center.
Vendor and Local Governments Respond to the Backlash
Flock Safety itself has adjusted its policies under pressure. In August, the Atlanta-based vendor announced it was reducing its recommended default data retention period from 30 days to seven days and mandating case codes and misuse-detection logs for all police searches, WWMT reported, though agencies can still keep longer retention schedules if local rules permit it.
Some Michigan governments have gone further and cut ties altogether. The Monroe County Board of Commissioners voted 8-1 on September 1 to terminate its contract for more than 40 Flock cameras deployed countywide following sustained public outcry, The Monroe News reported, though individual municipalities with independent contracts were unaffected. Ferndale, Westland, and Sumpter Township have also recently canceled or declined to renew their Flock contracts following organized citizen pushback, according to Detroit Legal News — Sumpter Township ended its trial in August after voters rejected a police millage. Meanwhile, statewide adoption keeps climbing: more than 180 Michigan law enforcement agencies had contracted with Flock Safety as of August, up from roughly 125 at the start of the year, the outlet reported.
The tension between expansion and resistance has played out closer to home, too. According to Hoodline, a Madison Heights cannabis shop successfully pressured city officials to remove a mandatory Flock camera from its parking entrance after posting a No Flock Zone sign, while Macomb County's St. Clair Shores council has been weighing its own curbs on the cameras amid resident pushback. For Jean, the viral response to his satirical offer is proof the debate isn't going away anytime soon — even if he's not expecting anyone to actually show up with a stolen camera for a tattoo.
