Privacy

Most EMPs only cause momentary disruption, usually causing the device to reboot. To cause permanent damage, you need a massive amount of power in that EMP device. (Also, the strength of the EMP falls off very quickly with distance, so if you want it to work at any significant range, then you'll need exponentially more power.)

And by a lot of power, I mean this thing is going to at least be backpack-sized. It will probably end up being too big and too heavy for one person to easily carry.

Unless maybe you want to get really fancy with some chemically generated EMP? But that's going to be a lot harder to make directional, and it will probably be a one time use device.

(Also, if you get caught, this strategy may earn you some extra-spicy federal charges.)

I’d also say re-used Bluray/DVD lasers to burn out the camera CCD

Sources I've been able to find put a bluray laser diode's power at about 0.0126W.

To maybe cause damage to camera sensors, you're going to need at least 1W, more likely 3-5W before you start seeing any real damage. To cause damage to a camera CCD at distance, you're going to need hundreds of watts and you'll need to focus the beam far better than most high-power lasers do.

Again, a device capable of disabling cameras at range will be large. Lasers with that kind of power are at least the size of a large suitcase, and that's without adding in the necessary batteries and power supply.

And it would be highly irresponsible to go shining such a high-powered laser in an uncontrolled public setting. Stray reflections could easily cause permanent eye damage to yourself and/or innocent bystanders.

(And even when a camera is damaged by lasers, it tends to result in only a few dead pixels. The camera's image might still remain usable unless you blast it very thoroughly.)

If you want a technological means to disable Flock cameras, I'd recommend trying to hack them instead. Every single one of them has a wireless connection that could -- at least in theory -- be used to hijack control of the device and shut it down. Though that will only disable it until someone turns it back on.

For an actual, practical way to disable them at a distance, you're going to want projectiles.

• Paintball to the lens

• Pellet gun to the lens (hoping a cracked lens will make the camera's image unusable)

• Shotgun loaded with birdshot (birdshot is generally safe to shoot at an upward angle because it won't have enough energy to harm anyone when it comes back down)

• Just throw rocks and bricks at it

With the latter two, I'd actually recommend aiming at the solar panel rather than the camera itself. These cameras are known to track phones and other devices, and damaging/blocking the camera lens won't stop that. But damaging the solar panel will stop that -- once the batteries run out, all of the camera's functions will shut down.

And on that note -- if you're going camera hunting, of course leave your phone at home! Preferably, leave it playing a long youtube playlist. The youtube play history combined with the phone's location history could give you a convincing alibi.