For most people, a rough week might mean shutting off the phone, venting to a friend or disappearing onto the couch for a few hours. Volusia County deputies say one Florida teenager handled his differently.
Jaden Joseph Brooks, 18, of Port Orange, is accused of using a reciprocating saw to cut down multiple Flock license plate reader cameras in Volusia County. When detectives asked him why, Brooks allegedly gave an explanation that was both remarkably simple and likely to follow the case around.
He disagreed with the cameras and “was having a rough week,” Brooks told investigators, according to an arrest affidavit reported by ClickOrlando.
The investigation began after a deputy found a damaged Flock camera near Airport Road and Pioneer Trail in New Smyrna Beach on Aug. 4. The pole appeared to have been cut near its base, sending the camera to the ground, according to the affidavit.
Investigators soon connected that incident with other cut-down cameras being investigated by Port Orange police, including equipment near Airport Road and Charles Street and near Forest Preserve Boulevard and Taylor Road.
There was also an awkward twist for whoever was responsible: one of the cameras apparently helped investigators find their suspect.
Authorities said a Flock camera near Forest Preserve Boulevard and Taylor Road photographed a black 2018 Chevrolet Suburban at about 4:13 a.m. on Aug. 4. A records check led detectives to the vehicle’s registered owner, who told them the SUV was usually driven by his stepson, Brooks, according to the affidavit.
A friend later told investigators he had been with Brooks after midnight when Brooks drove into a neighborhood, pulled a tool from the vehicle and walked toward one of the cameras. The friend said he watched Brooks cut down the pole before the pair left, the affidavit states.
When Brooks was interviewed at the Port Orange Police Department on Aug. 11, investigators say he acknowledged driving the Suburban and admitted using a reciprocating saw on the cameras.
Brooks was arrested on three counts of criminal mischief and released later that day on $7,500 bond, according to FOX 35 Orlando.
The Cameras Were Already Making People Angry
Brooks’ arrest didn’t arrive in a vacuum.
Flock cameras automatically capture license plate and vehicle information that law enforcement agencies can search during investigations. Police departments have defended the systems as useful for identifying suspects, finding stolen vehicles and solving crimes, while critics have increasingly questioned how much information should be collected about ordinary drivers and who should be able to access it.
That disagreement had already spilled onto the streets of Central Florida before Brooks was arrested.
In July and early August, cameras were reported damaged in DeBary, Osteen, Port Orange and Clermont. Two cameras cut down in a Clermont subdivision caused an estimated $10,000 in damage, according to an earlier ClickOrlando report on the vandalism.
One Port Orange resident, Roberto Sabatino, filmed a toppled camera and watched his social media audience explode. Sabatino told News 6 that his account jumped from roughly 50 followers to around 2,000 as the video approached 1 million views.
“For the most part, most of the people that are commenting are against Flock cameras,” Sabatino said, while acknowledging that some supported them.
That split is easy to see online.
A discussion in Reddit’s r/florida community about the Central Florida vandalism — posted before Brooks was publicly identified in the latest arrest reporting — attracted comments from people who clearly have strong feelings about the cameras.
One commenter who identified themselves as a Volusia County resident jokingly thanked the people damaging them as “good Samaritans.”
Another wrote that the cameras “don’t make me feel safer,” describing them instead as a physical sign of disappearing privacy rights.
But the reaction was not unanimous. One commenter pushed back, arguing that people’s opinions can change quickly when license plate readers help identify someone responsible for burglarizing a home.
Local residents interviewed by FOX 35 offered a similar counterpoint to the online cheering.
“Going around cutting them down, that’s not too cool,” New Smyrna Beach resident Patrick Fear told the station. Another resident, Bradley Lyons, said he didn’t personally object to the cameras because he had nothing to hide.
That leaves Brooks’ case sitting squarely in the middle of a much bigger Florida argument.
For police, Flock cameras can be another set of eyes on the road. For privacy-minded residents, those same eyes can feel a little too watchful. And for whoever has been cutting poles around Central Florida, disagreement with the technology has apparently gone well beyond speaking at a city meeting or complaining online.
Brooks’ case now moves into the court system, where the allegations against him still have to be proven.
But whatever ultimately happens with the criminal charges, one line from the arrest affidavit has already given this otherwise technical debate a distinctly human — and distinctly Florida — moment:
He “was having a rough week.”
