Steve Eimers built a large online following by pointing out roadside guardrail problems. In April, he expanded that work to automatic license plate readers, arguing that some camera installations may create safety risks when placed near guardrails or mounted on existing road signs.
That shift pushed his advocacy into a more volatile debate. What began as a crashworthiness concern soon drew commenters focused on surveillance, privacy, and anger at ALPR companies such as Flock and Axon.
From Guardrails to ALPR Safety
Eimers is known online as “The Guardrail Guy,” with hundreds of thousands of followers across platforms including YouTube, TikTok, and X. He began posting about guardrails in 2022, after his 17-year-old daughter Hannah was killed when her car collided with a guardrail that pierced through the vehicle instead of guiding it back to the road.
His later focus on automatic license plate readers was still rooted in roadside safety. ALPRs use mounted cameras to capture vehicular data, which can then be used to track people suspected of committing crimes. Eimers’ concern was not mainly about how that data is used, but about where some of the equipment is placed.
According to Eimers, many ALPRs may be installed too close to guardrails, potentially affecting how those guardrails perform in a crash. He also argued that attaching cameras to existing road signs could interfere with “breakaway” posts, which are intended to function safely when struck.
The Online Reaction Escalated
Eimers’ ALPR videos reached an audience already divided over the growth of roadside surveillance. While his posts emphasized whether the cameras were “crashworthy,” many commenters treated the devices as symbols of mass surveillance appearing quietly in their neighborhoods.
The response became increasingly alarming to him. Eimers said more people began urging him to destroy the cameras, and some expressed anger that he had not done so. Others asked for exact camera locations, speculated about metals such as gold, silver, and copper inside the devices, or proposed methods for vandalizing them.
One comment on a video Eimers posted on July 24 read, “Large diameter pipe cutter,” alongside a picture of that tool. The same comment added, “Nice and quiet, cuts it like butter!!!!”
The attention also produced a concrete response from Flock. On July 22, Eimers posted that Flock had committed to a nationwide audit of its camera installations. The post included video of a local Flock camera he had also posted about the previous day. Garrett Langley, Flock’s CEO, quote-tweeted Eimers and called him a “true American hero.”
Damaged Cameras Changed the Risk
On July 25, Eimers says he was driving home with one of his daughters when he saw the camera from his post. It was severely damaged, and he told WIRED it looked like it had been shot.
A couple of miles later, he passed another Flock camera that he had documented in a TikTok video in May. It was damaged in a similar way. After seeing the cameras, Eimers decided to halt all ALPR-related advocacy work indefinitely.
He described the experience as leaving him “a little bit shell-shocked.” He said the damage reflected what he viewed as a sharp rise in hostility toward Flock and other ALPR companies.
“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.”
Eimers reported the damage to local police. On July 31, the Maryville Police Department and the Blount County Sheriff’s Office announced that they had arrested Adam Heimerman, who appears to be running for Congress in Tennessee. Heimerman was charged with felony vandalism for shooting four ALPR cameras in the area between July 14 and July 22.
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 had flagged. Heimerman did not respond to a request for comment, and his legal representation could not immediately be identified.
Flock Condemns Damage as Eimers Steps Back
Eimers also noticed that many comments on a Facebook post about the arrest appeared to support Heimerman. One read, “Buy that man a beer.” For Eimers, that reaction reinforced the danger of online anger spilling into real-world damage.
Flock spokesperson Paris Lewbel declined to say how many of the company’s cameras have been damaged in recent months. Lewbel told WIRED that Flock has received relatively few reports about such incidents.
“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 Flock is conducting a nationwide audit, but did not answer specific questions about its methodology, timeline, or scope. Flock has more than 120,000 ALPRs across 49 states.
Eimers’ main concern now is that someone could get hurt. He pointed to a hypothetical in which a person shoots an ALPR, police pursue that person, and then a weapon is fired.
He says he wants to keep his advocacy centered on roadside safety and crashworthiness, while leaving the broader privacy debate over ALPRs to civil rights groups. He sees value in “staying in my lane,” especially because his posts helped prompt Flock’s audit.
Although he does not plan to post new ALPR content, Eimers intends to keep his existing posts online. He still believes they can make roads safer if the cameras remain in place.
“If these continue to be out on the roadside, America will be safer because of what I posted,” Eimers says.
He also summed up the turn his advocacy had taken: “I poke the bear too often,” Eimers adds. “And this time the bear poked back.”