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For the past decade, Claire Phillips has lived in Altadena. After her home was declared a total loss after the Eaton Fires, she joined a WhatsApp group chat centered on fire recovery to stay in contact with her neighbors.
In June of last year, the co-captain of their fire recovery group sent a message to the chat about a Flock camera in a nearby neighborhood. Nobody knew where they came from or who put them up.
"We were all pretty aghast that they were installed without our knowledge," she says.
Online, people shared videos of additional Flock cameras on black metal poles near the empty, dirt-covered lots where homes had burned down. Others noticed the cameras placed at major intersections in the city, making them unavoidable for anyone driving through town.