Tennessee congressional hopeful accused of shooting license plate cameras

An independent congressional candidate in Tennessee faces four felony vandalism charges after allegedly shooting four automated license plate reader (ALPR) cameras between July 14 and 22. According to the Blount County Sheriff's Office (site geo-restricted), Adam Lee Heimerman, 37, is accused of targeting three cameras in Blount County and one in Maryville. Local news reports citing an affidavit say at least one was manufactured by Flock. Police said Heimerman allegedly reached one of the cameras through the grounds of a place of worship while a service was under way. Heimerman is running for election [PDF] to represent Tennessee's 2nd Congressional District. He is on the ballot in the general election on November 3, 2026. One of Heimerman's opponents in the 2nd Congressional District, Republican incumbent Tim Burchett, has also tried to tackle the Flock cameras across the state, albeit through less drastic means. Last week, Burchett introduced a bill that would prevent federal agencies from buying or accessing automated surveillance systems and bar state and local agencies from using federal funds to purchase them, citing Fourth Amendment abuses. The bill would allow individual counties to secure contracts with Flock and install its cameras, but if passed, the proposal would see that the county bears all the costs of doing so. Flock told local news that it welcomed legislation that both increased the guardrails around its tech and retained individual authorities' power to deploy cameras to support law enforcement. The case joins a series of attacks on ALPR cameras across the US amid growing opposition to the technology. From allegations of police officers using the cameras to stalk ex-partners, to controversial ties with ICE and CBP immigration investigations, Flock, the best-known brand of ALPRs in the US, has struggled with continued stories of its tech being abused. Georgia police arrested and fired five officers on suspicion of misusing ALPR cameras "for non-law enforcement purposes" just last month. One Milwaukee police officer was also allegedly caught searching the details of his ex-partner more than 100 times using Flock camera tech. Later, one of the detectives assigned to the investigation was also allegedly caught misusing ALPR data, and had allegedly unlawfully placed a GPS tracker on one of the victims' cars years earlier. The controversies coincide with a spate of physical attacks on ALPR hardware across the US, some carried out by people who regard the technology as unlawful or unconstitutional surveillance. An unidentified arsonist set two Flock cameras on fire in Georgia last month, weeks before a 40-year-old man was caught by regular CCTV cameras destroying ALPRs in California. Steve Eimers, a prominent campaigner for road infrastructure safety, was also recently forced to desist from his efforts to highlight potential legal issues with the poles Flock uses to erect its cameras after supporters started identifying the cameras used in his videos and destroying them. These vandalism cases have barely made a dent in the overall number of Flock cameras that operate across the US. The company does not specify the exact number that are up and running, but estimates range between 80,000 and 120,000 or more. Many police departments claim the technology makes policing crimes ranging from vehicle thefts to murders much easier, as it allows them to track the movements of vehicles with ease. Flock says its technology is used in roughly 5,000 communities across 49 states, although not all of them are sticking by the company amid the many controversies. Los Angeles Police Department, for example, said recently that it would let its Flock contract expire, while others such as Eugene and Springfield, Oregon, canceled their contracts in December. (R)