A new GTA 5 mod introduces working replicas of Flock surveillance cameras to the fictional city of Los Santos, allowing players to be tracked, reported to the police, and, in true Grand Theft Auto fashion, to fight back and blow the cameras up for an in-game reward.
Flock automated licence plate-reading cameras have spread rapidly across roads in the United States. Widespread opposition to the devices has drawn attention to their inaccuracies and their potential for abuse by authorities. A movement to “deflock” cities has ranged from cancelling municipal contracts to covering the cameras with bin bags and other forms of physical vandalism.
How the mod works
The mod is called Grand Theft Automated Licence Plate Reader, created by Morry Kolman. It places 235 Flock cameras throughout Los Santos, the game’s stand-in for Los Angeles. According to Kolman, the in-game cameras are based on custom-built 3D models designed to subject players to seemingly inescapable surveillance.
The virtual cameras photograph players and track their movements. Committing crimes in the game, such as speeding or hitting pedestrians, prompts the cameras to report the player to the police. They also occasionally file false reports, mirroring behaviour reported of the real devices. Players can save the captured images for use in social media posts or as wallpapers.
Because it is Grand Theft Auto, players can retaliate against the surveillance system using weapons such as rocket launchers. After destroying a camera, players can collect the wreckage and claim an in-game reward of roughly £470, based on the estimated value of the camera’s internal components from a teardown. An integrated timer tracks how quickly a player carries out a “deflocking”, letting them beat their personal best.
A virtual protest
GTA 5 has long featured social commentary, from the dangers of consumerism to critiques of extreme gamer behaviour through characters such as Trevor and Jimmy. The Grand Theft Automated Licence Plate Reader mod builds on the distrust of the Flock surveillance network installed across US roadways.
For some players, it offers a less punitive outlet for vigilantism, but Kolman notes it also makes the game harder. Police surveillance becomes nearly impossible to evade, and to reflect Flock’s history of inaccurate reporting, every time a player passes through a camera’s field of view the mod creates a 1 in 20 chance that the system triggers a police chase without cause.
The mod also functions as a privacy reality check. While being followed by 235 cameras in the claustrophobic world of GTA may feel oppressive, real Los Angeles County has more than ten times that number.
