Man says arrest after Columbia Flock camera protest was worth it
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
A Mexico, Missouri, man says he has no regrets after being arrested while protesting Columbia's Flock cameras.
Dominic O'Connor, a tattoo artist who lives in Mexico and works at Electric Peacock Tattoos in Columbia, said he spent two days protesting the city's use of the automated license plate reader cameras before he was arrested Monday.
His protest included wearing a Guy Fawkes face mask and standing at the intersection of East Broadway and Providence Road, where he held signs blocking the view of a Flock camera. The signs featured an upside-down American flag and some colorful language about the cameras.
“I was going to go down Broadway, but they put the cameras up so high that I couldn't reach them without standing in the middle of the road or just being super inconvenient,” O’Connor said. “I looked down the road and those cameras were low enough for me to get to. So I was like, Yeah, I can block those ones. And Providence and Broadway gets tons of traffic. I could raise all kinds of awareness there.”
O'Connor said while he has noticed crime getting worse downtown in recent years, his concerns about crime do not outweigh his privacy concerns.
“It gets worse every year, but that doesn't mean that we need to have our privacy invaded and have law enforcement thinking they can just step on our toes and city councils voting in surveillance equipment on innocent civilians that they don't have a warrant to watch,” O’Connor told ABC 17 News.
O'Connor said he first protested for about three hours after seeing a post on the DeFlock America Facebook page about an international day of protest against Flock cameras.
He then returned for a second day of protest on Monday and initially hoped other people would join him, but ultimately decided to protest alone. O'Connor said he heard several drivers honking in support while he was protesting.
However, on Monday, after about two hours of protesting, Columbia police arrived. ABC 17 News arrived shortly afterward, which O’Connor said caused him to panic and ultimately prompted him to leave the scene.
“I was going to go walk back to my car, I was done for the day anyways. But they said I was under arrest. I guess technically they said I was being detained. I didn't know the terminology and I was like, ‘Crap, I'm being arrested.’ So I just took off running,” O’Connor said. “That's why I ran. I had anxiety and I kind of have a panic attack. Like, I have three jobs, and I just wanted to make sure that I can get to work the next day without dealing with any of the BS.”
O'Connor says was arrested for jaywalking, standing on a median and resisting arrest. He said an officer also discussed potentially charging him with obstructing government operations.
Dan Viets, an attorney with the Mid-Missouri Civil Liberties Association, has been one of the more-outspoken community members regarding Flock cameras since they were first introduced in Columbia in 2024.
Before the City Council voted to install the cameras, Viets compared their use to George Orwell’s "1984," arguing it would put the city under constant surveillance. Now, he says many of the concerns raised when the cameras were proposed have become reality.
“Exactly as we feared. These cameras place everybody under constant surveillance. If you're outside your home, you're under surveillance. The Supreme Court has held that the police are required to get a search warrant in order to place a GPS transmit or on a motor vehicle. But these cameras make those unnecessary. These are essentially putting a GPS transmitter on everybody's car all the time,” Viets said.
Viets also raised concerns about Columbia’s median ordinance, which restricts certain activities on city medians and is among the charges O’Connor faces. He argues the ordinance can be used to restrict protected speech and protest activity.
“This median ordinance is being used to suppress First Amendment activity as well. I think that this arrest is a violation of constitutional rights,” Viets said.
Viets said the Mid-Missouri Civil Liberties Association will represent four people who were arrested on the first day the ordinance took effect.
O’Connor was released after posting a $500 bond and is scheduled to appear in court Sept. 21.
Despite the arrest, O'Connor said he believes protesting the cameras was worth it.
“I feel like I need to take it upon myself to do it, just spread awareness and get people to follow in the footsteps of what's right and what our founding fathers would have wanted,” O’Connor said. “I just want a future that I can feel confident that my daughter would be happy in. And a world of United States of surveillance is not it.”
Since his arrest, O'Connor said he has received about $200 in donations to help cover his bond. He added that any money he receives exceeding $1,000 will be donated to charity. O’Connor said he hopes to use the first $1,000 to cover his bond and court costs.
He also said the attention surrounding his arrest has brought several new clients to Electric Peacock Tattoos, which has inspired the shop to launch an anti-Flock and anti-government tattoo sale beginning next week.
Viets believes the restrictions on protests raise broader concerns about the balance between public safety and First Amendment rights.
“It is a very sad situation when the government places everybody under constant surveillance and when the government, in the name of safety, chooses to tell people that they cannot publicly protest," he said
Viets added he believes public safety should not come at the expense of constitutional protections.
“If there were no Fourth Amendment, the police could solve a lot more crimes. If they never needed to get a search warrant, if they could invade all of our homes whenever they felt like it. Indeed, they would solve more crimes. It is not worth the tradeoff. It is not worth the sacrifice. People have a reasonable expectation that when they travel on the streets lawfully for lawful purposes, that they're not going to be placed under surveillance.”
Nationally, concerns over Flock cameras have continued to grow, with more than 130 cities across the country canceling their contracts or deactivating the cameras. That includes the Pulaski County Sheriff’s Office, which announced it would deactivate its Flock cameras this month.
Viets said Columbia should consider doing the same.
“Many communities in our state and across this nation are terminating their contracts with the company. And that's what Columbia ought to do as well,” Viets said. “It is a wasted half a million dollars a year. We could use that money to hire police officers. We could use that money to do a lot of things that would increase public safety without sacrificing constitutional rights.”
The Columbia Police Department told ABC 17 News in July that it had no plans to cancel its contract with Flock, citing the system’s effectiveness in helping investigators solve crimes. Assistant Chief Lance Bollinger pointed to Boone County’s arrest of Andrew Acton on a homicide charge as one example.
“That case would have been difficult to solve without the Flock System as it provided crucial evidence to investigators,” Bollinger wrote.
Bollinger also said the technology has received more oversight than any other system he has encountered during his 20 years in law enforcement.
