Man dressed as Darth Vader defends Flock cameras to San Diego City Council: ‘This is what the emperor needs’

A man dressed as the iconic “Star Wars” villain Darth Vader on Wednesday appeared to defend the use of Flock cameras before the San Diego City Council, assuring that “this is what the emperor needs.”

The man approached the podium to address the Public Safety and Livable Neighborhoods Committee meeting, with the character’s signature breathing audible to the council chamber’s microphone. The council addressed him as “Darth Vader.”

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

He urged that the cameras be used to surveil any “rebel scum as they move 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.”

The plea for the cameras shifted to raising taxes to clear out storm drains and to the clearing of homeless encampments in the city. The man said the council members can use “doublespeak” to say the police department is humanitarian.

“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 City Council member Jennifer Campbell, before waving his hand to the audience. “Do it like this.”

His last plea was for the Flock cameras to 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.

Late last year, San Diego officials signed a yearlong deal to provide the San Diego Police Department with access to “open source intelligence” and data from other law enforcement agencies, Axios reported in April.

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

Flock provides a system of license plate readers, video cameras and audio detection devices to record license plate numbers with the vehicle information, down to the make and model of a vehicle and even bumper stickers.

Axios reported this week that local activists and some city officials have called for alternatives, joining others across the country who have criticized the use of the cameras as backlash mounts . Critics have raised the cameras’ implications when it comes to mass surveillance and possible misuse by law enforcement.

Flock announced that it made changes to its privacy and data retention policies, saying it will shorten the recommended default data retention window from 30 to seven days to cut the amount of time data will sit in Flock’s systems. Law enforcement will have a case code to search Flock data.

The American Civil Liberties Union, one of the company’s primary critics that has several pending cases against Flock, called the changes a “thinly-veiled PR attempt.”