At the San Diego City Council’s most recent budget meeting, Sith Lord Darth Vader had some points to make. Between gasping breaths, Vader praised the council’s recent votes to renew its contract with the surveillance company Flock Safety, which has been making headlines recently as more and more stories of police officers abusing its tools have continued to come out—and as a WIRED review of code for a new AI tool already in use by some police departments has made clear that it is watching far more than just license plates.
“The emperor is a fan of Flock. And we must continue utilizing Flock technologies so that we can follow and surveil the rebel scum as they move from playground to playground, from playground to pool, from pool to gymnasium.”
The recording of the video has gone viral, reaching millions of people on TikTok and Instagram.
The man behind the stunt is Anthony Ralphs, a San Diego-based DJ, event producer, and agriculture consultant who has spent the better part of the past year advocating against the city’s support of Flock’s use by the San Diego Police Department.
Initially, Ralphs thought about keeping his identity hidden behind the Vader mask—a 2004 Hasbro model. But he says that as the video has picked up more and more steam, he decided to “take ownership” of the stunt that put Flock and surveillance technology on the minds and feeds of millions of people around the world.
WIRED spoke to Ralphs about advocacy, crafting a costume, and the role that art can play in civic engagement.
This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.
VITTORIA ELLIOTT: How did this start for you? Was this your first city council meeting?
ANTHONY RALPHS: No. My first time attending a city council meeting was sometime last summer or last fall. But really the most consequential city council meeting that I attended, that really got me in the fold of starting to regularly participate in my civic duties, was this issue of Flock. It was my third, or maybe my fourth, city council meeting back on December 9th, and the city council was putting this up to a vote, whether to continue to use Flock.
The story back then was that the city council didn’t exactly know what the technology was. The police were touting it as a force multiplier. There were over 300 people at that vote, the meeting room was completely full, and I would say 95 percent of the people there were saying they didn’t want Flock. But the council voted for it anyway. It was extremely discouraging, and it really lit a fire under me to start going and regularly participating.
I came to the following city council meeting, and I was one of maybe five people in the city council chambers, and there had been close to 300 just a couple of weeks prior. That moment was eye-opening. I realized not everyone can be there all the time to do this, and that’s what we need. We need consistent advocacy. So I took time off of school to be able to do that.
Why did this feel so critical?
Our city’s $120 million deficit. They cut several arts programs, and while they did that, they also provided the $2.2 million for Flock’s contract, even when people in those communities that are being most heavily policed say that they don’t want this. And now, we have the case of Hugo Parra, a local San Diegan who was falsely imprisoned and sat in prison for 30 days due to an erroneous tag by the Flock cameras. [Flock did not immediately respond to a request for comment on this matter.]