The ‘Guardrail Guy’ Went Viral for Posting About Flock Cameras. Then Someone Destroyed Them
The ‘Guardrail Guy’ Went Viral for Posting About Flock Cameras. Then Someone Destroyed Them
“护栏哥”因发布关于 Flock 摄像头的视频而走红，随后这些摄像头遭人破坏
Steve Eimers has racked up hundreds of thousands of followers across platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and X. Under the moniker “The Guardrail Guy,” he posts about installation issues with guardrails lining roadways across the country. He began posting about guardrails in 2022, a few years after his 17-year-old daughter Hannah was killed when she collided with a guardrail that pierced through her car rather than guiding it back to the road.
史蒂夫·艾默斯（Steve Eimers）在 YouTube、TikTok 和 X 等平台上积累了数十万粉丝。他以“护栏哥”（The Guardrail Guy）的绰号，发布关于全国道路护栏安装问题的视频。他于 2022 年开始发布有关护栏的内容，几年前，他 17 岁的女儿汉娜（Hannah）在车祸中不幸丧生，当时她撞上的护栏直接穿透了车身，而未能将车辆引导回道路。
In April, Eimers began posting about another hallmark of American roads: automatic license plate readers (ALPRs).
今年 4 月，艾默斯开始发布关于美国道路上另一个标志性设施的内容：自动车牌识别系统（ALPR）。
ALPRs, sold by companies like Flock and Axon, use mounted cameras to capture vehicular data, which can be used to track people suspected of committing crimes. Eimers expanded his safety advocacy because he believes ALPRs may pose serious risks to passengers in the event of a crash. His claim is that many ALPRs are installed too close to guardrails, which undermines their functionality, or are placed on existing road signs, which can negate the ability of “breakaway” posts to function safely upon impact.
由 Flock 和 Axon 等公司销售的 ALPR 系统，利用安装的摄像头捕捉车辆数据，用于追踪犯罪嫌疑人。艾默斯扩大了他的安全倡导范围，因为他认为 ALPR 在发生碰撞时可能会给乘客带来严重风险。他声称，许多 ALPR 安装得离护栏太近，削弱了护栏的功能，或者被放置在现有的道路标志上，这可能会导致“易折式”立柱在受到撞击时无法安全发挥作用。
His videos about ALPRs touched a nerve. The devices have become increasingly controversial, and cities across the country are weighing their effectiveness against the risks of misuse. Though Eimers’ videos focused on whether the cameras were “crashworthy,” many commenters believed the cameras were invasive and represented a quiet expansion of mass surveillance in their own neighborhoods.
他关于 ALPR 的视频触动了人们的神经。这些设备引发了越来越多的争议，全国各地的城市都在权衡其有效性与滥用风险。尽管艾默斯的视频重点关注摄像头是否“耐撞”，但许多评论者认为这些摄像头具有侵入性，代表了在其社区内悄然扩张的大规模监控。
Eimers noted, with alarm, that an increasing number of people were telling him to destroy the cameras, and some were furious that he hadn’t. Others wanted to know the exact location of the cameras in his posts, or suggested that they contained metals like gold, silver, and copper. Some suggested specific vandalism methods.
艾默斯惊恐地发现，越来越多的人告诉他去破坏这些摄像头，有些人甚至因为他没有这样做而感到愤怒。还有人想知道他视频中摄像头的具体位置，或者暗示这些设备含有金、银、铜等金属。有些人甚至提出了具体的破坏方法。
“Large diameter pipe cutter,” read a comment on a video Eimers posted on July 24, accompanied by a picture of a large-diameter pipe cutter. “Nice and quiet, cuts it like butter!!!!”
“大口径切管机，”艾默斯 7 月 24 日发布的一段视频下的一条评论写道，并附上了一张大口径切管机的图片。“又安静又好用，切它就像切黄油一样！！！！”
On July 22, Eimers posted that Flock, perhaps the most recognizable ALPR brand in the country, had committed to conducting a nationwide audit of its camera installations. Eimers included a video of a local Flock camera, which he had also posted about the previous day. Garrett Langley, the company’s CEO, quote-tweeted Eimers, whom he called a “true American hero.”
7 月 22 日，艾默斯发文称，Flock（可能是美国最知名的 ALPR 品牌）已承诺对其全国范围内的摄像头安装情况进行审计。艾默斯在文中附上了一段当地 Flock 摄像头的视频，他前一天也发布过相关内容。该公司首席执行官加勒特·兰利（Garrett Langley）转发了艾默斯的推文，并称他为“真正的美国英雄”。
On July 25, Eimers says he was driving home with one of his daughters when he came across the camera from his post. He was taken aback: It was severely damaged. He tells WIRED it looked like it had been shot.
7 月 25 日，艾默斯说他和女儿开车回家时，偶然发现了视频中提到的那个摄像头。他大吃一惊：它遭到了严重破坏。他告诉《连线》（WIRED）杂志，看起来像是被枪击了。
A couple of miles down the road, he passed by another Flock camera that he had documented in a TikTok video back in May. It was similarly damaged.
在几英里外的路上，他经过了另一个他在 5 月份 TikTok 视频中记录过的 Flock 摄像头。它也遭到了同样的破坏。
Eimers made a decision: He was halting all ALPR-related advocacy work indefinitely.
艾默斯做出了一个决定：他将无限期停止所有与 ALPR 相关的倡导工作。
Eimers says that seeing the cameras left him feeling “a little bit shell-shocked.” He says they demonstrate what he sees as an alarming surge in negative sentiment toward Flock and other ALPR companies.
艾默斯说，看到这些摄像头让他感到“有点震惊”。他说，这些事件表明，人们对 Flock 和其他 ALPR 公司的负面情绪正在惊人地高涨。
“I just haven’t seen or experienced what I’ve experienced over the last few months with the escalation ever with any of my guardrail advocacy work,” Eimers says, adding that he doesn’t want to “feed the trolls.”
“在过去几个月里，我所经历的这种升级，是我在任何护栏倡导工作中从未见过或经历过的，”艾默斯说，并补充道他不想“助长网络喷子的气焰”。
Eimers tells WIRED that he reported the damage to local police. The Maryville Police Department and the Blount County Sheriff’s Office announced on July 31 that they had arrested Adam Heimerman, who appears to be running for Congress in Tennessee, and charged him with felony vandalism for shooting four ALPR cameras in the area between July 14 and July 22.
艾默斯告诉《连线》，他已向当地警方报告了这些破坏行为。马里维尔警察局（Maryville Police Department）和布朗特县治安官办公室（Blount County Sheriff’s Office）于 7 月 31 日宣布，他们逮捕了亚当·海默曼（Adam Heimerman），此人似乎正在竞选田纳西州的国会议员。他被控犯有重罪破坏公物罪，原因是在 7 月 14 日至 7 月 22 日期间枪击了该地区的四个 ALPR 摄像头。
Major deputy chief Ryan Rogers of the Maryville Police Department confirmed to WIRED that Heimerman was arrested in connection with allegedly damaging the same cameras Eimers flagged. Heimerman did not respond to a request for comment, and his legal representation couldn’t immediately be identified.
马里维尔警察局副局长瑞安·罗杰斯（Ryan Rogers）向《连线》证实，海默曼因涉嫌破坏艾默斯指出的那些摄像头而被捕。海默曼没有回应置评请求，目前也无法确定其法律代理人。
Eimers noted, to his dismay, that many of the comments on a Facebook post about the news appear to express support for Heimerman. One read, “Buy that man a beer.”
令艾默斯沮丧的是，他注意到在关于此新闻的一篇 Facebook 帖子下，许多评论似乎都在支持海默曼。其中一条写道：“给那个人买杯啤酒。”
Flock spokesperson Paris Lewbel declined to specify how many of the company’s cameras have been damaged in recent months, but tells WIRED that the company has received relatively few reports about these incidents.
Flock 发言人帕里斯·卢贝尔（Paris Lewbel）拒绝透露近几个月来该公司有多少摄像头遭到破坏，但告诉《连线》，公司收到的此类事件报告相对较少。
“Damaging public safety equipment is illegal and puts communities at risk, which is why we strongly condemn this type of behavior,” Lewbel adds. (Lewbel confirmed that the company is conducting a nationwide audit, but didn’t answer specific questions about the methodology, timeline, or scope. Flock has more than 120,000 ALPRs across 49 states.)
“破坏公共安全设备是违法的，并将社区置于危险之中，这就是为什么我们强烈谴责这种行为，”卢贝尔补充道。（卢贝尔证实该公司正在进行全国范围的审计，但没有回答关于方法、时间表或范围的具体问题。Flock 在全美 49 个州拥有超过 12 万台 ALPR 设备。）
Eimers’ greatest concern, he tells WIRED, is that someone gets hurt. He pointed to a hypothetical scenario in which someone shoots an ALPR, gets chased by the police, and then someone fires a weapon.
艾默斯告诉《连线》，他最担心的是有人受伤。他指出了一个假设场景：如果有人枪击 ALPR，被警察追捕，随后有人开火，后果不堪设想。
Eimers says he wants his advocacy to focus on roadside safety and crashworthiness, and let civil rights groups lead the privacy discourse surrounding ALPRs. He says there’s tangible good that can come from “staying in my lane,” pointing to the Flock audit. Though he won’t be posting anything new about ALPRs, he plans on leaving all of his existing content about them up.
艾默斯表示，他希望自己的倡导工作专注于道路安全和耐撞性，并让民权组织主导围绕 ALPR 的隐私讨论。他说，“各司其职”能带来切实的好处，并指出了 Flock 的审计工作。虽然他不会再发布任何关于 ALPR 的新内容，但他计划保留所有现有的相关内容。
“If these continue to be out on the roadside, America will be safer because of what I posted,” Eimers says.
“如果这些设备继续留在路边，美国会因为我发布的内容而变得更安全，”艾默斯说。
“I poke the bear too often,” Eimers adds. “And this time the bear poked back.”
“我捅马蜂窝捅得太频繁了，”艾默斯补充道，“而这一次，马蜂窝反击了。”