If the Avon Police Department had a nickel for every comment it received on a recent post detailing the destruction of cameras in town, it would nearly have enough to pay for one of the $1,000 camera poles.

On Saturday morning, two automated speed enforcement camera poles on Avon Road were destroyed, one speed camera was stolen, a light pole was destroyed and a Flock license plate reader camera mounted at that location was stolen.

The light pole replacement is expected to cost the town about $6,500, the speed camera poles will cost an estimated $1,000 apiece; the Flock camera will cost $2,500 and the speed camera will cost $5,000, labor not included.

Those numbers put the crimes, which the police are treating as two separate incidents, at the level of a felony, said Police Chief Greg Daly, and the town is investigating.

To receive any information related to these crimes, the town put out a Facebook post about them, which received more than 17,000 comments in the days that followed.

Daly said he thinks most of the comments are coming from people outside of Avon, which has fewer than 7,000 residents.

“We’ve been tracking them, and the vast majority of those comments are coming from out-of-state individuals,” Daly said. “It’s the internet, and people can obviously express their opinion; I don’t have any issue with that, but I’m a little disappointed that people are condoning the criminal activity that occurred in our town.”

Daly describes the speed enforcement and license plate reader cameras as a “force multiplier,” saying his department does not have enough workers to perform what the cameras are able to accomplish.

“I can’t have a police officer out on every corner, 24 hours a day,” he said. “Using technology, at different levels, assists us in making up for the lack of police officers we have on the street at any point in time.”

Daly said the Flock camera was cut down between 3 a.m. and 5 a.m. Saturday, at which time the Avon Police Department had just two officers on the streets. One of those officers was responding to a call to assist the Eagle County Sheriff’s Office when he saw the pole had been cut down, Daly said.

“There was some sophistication to it,” Daly said. “They put down a lamp pole, and then they cut three-quarters of the way through another pole, which we then had to put down due to safety concerns.”

It’s part of a growing trend at the moment, with Americans destroying Flock cameras across the country.

In October, a man was arrested in Virginia after detectives said he intentionally destroyed 13 Flock cameras. Also in October, three Flock cameras were reported damaged in the towns of Eugene and Springfield, Ore. In January, the Menard County Sheriff’s Office in Greenview, Ill., reported that a Flock camera pole was cut down in a similar manner as the Avon incident.

Avon has 12 active Flock cameras in total (11 now), and the town also uses an automated speed-tracking system from Traffic Logix to issue tickets to speeders going more than 10 mph over the speed limit in town.

Daly said he believes the Traffic Logix camera was mistaken for a Flock camera, which is why it was targeted.

The catalyst that motivated Daly to push for the Flock cameras in town was the hit-and-run vehicular homicide of Jack Ladesic that occurred in town on March 5, 2024.

“If we had had license-plate-reading cameras along that stretch at the time, we would have been able to solve his homicide,” Daly said.

But he knew the Flock cameras would be controversial, Daly added, which is why he pushed for additional security protocols surrounding who can access the data and how.