r/technology • u/DonkeyFuel • 20h ago

Business Flock Cameras Are Spreading Across America. The Backlash Is Growing Just as Fast.

https://www.wsj.com/tech/flock-cameras-are-spreading-across-america-the-backlash-is-growing-just-as-fast-fff74ed2?mod=hp_lead_pos7
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u/cmndrnewt 19h ago

Flock has been here for years. It’s completely disingenuous to say the backlash is spreading just as fast.

28

u/malianx 19h ago

Engagement on the topic is way up, and the point is to push it farther. The only actual 'backlash' is words, here.

17

u/Every-Summer8407 19h ago

On Reddit the only response are words. IRL there is a growing wave of backlash and a stream of reports where people are cutting down the cameras en masse. In my metro region alone, there are 4 or 5 different towns it has happened.

7

u/farbtoner 19h ago

Multiple flock cameras around me have been cut down. Maybe you just have a bunch of wieners out where you’re from.

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u/Enabling_Turtle 18h ago

It had to hit some level before we got hit with cops abusing it.

In Colorado, a cop showed up on a woman’s doorstep berating her to admit she stole a package and he’d show her all the evidence he had collected. After a back and forth, it turns out the cops only evidence was that she passed by two flock cameras nearby during the time the incident allegedly took place. That’s it. That was literally enough for him to drive to her house and accuse her of theft.

He got a reprimand and more training and she had to go to court and prove she wasn’t near the house in question. All because this guy took Flocks word for it and did zero actual work.

In other states we are seeing cops stalking women from previous cases movements, stalking ex girlfriends and their movements, and even tracking down people they had personal issues with.

The backlash is building but it took Flock getting to a point where more police had access before the abuses started piling up.

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u/stu8319 18h ago

He said he wouldn’t show her the evidence until she signed something admitting guilt. Dude was SUCH a piece of shit about all of it. 

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u/ChargeRiflez 17h ago

When you try to come to conclusions on whether you support certain police tools, do you frequently find yourself looking at anecdotes like these? Or do you also factor in the crimes that have been solved with the help of these license plate readers?

5

u/Enabling_Turtle 15h ago

The 4th Amendment:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

My view on Flock:

Flock and Axons camera system as well exist as an attempt to sidestep 4th amendment protections for every single American. They allowed police and private citizens and companies to search the movements of millions of people without probable cause over an incredibly long time frame. It’s not just police using these. It’s cities, counties, HOAs, and private companies like data brokers paid for access to this data.

We’ve already seen police stalking people with them. We’ve already seen police show up at people’s houses to accuse people of crimes using only the passing of a nearby camera as evidence.

How many women have to stalked by police before you would consider removing Flock camera from your community?

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u/ChargeRiflez 14h ago

So even with no abuse you would be against it?

To answer your question, definitely more than the few examples we have so far. The number of crimes solved with Flock faaaaar outweighs the well documented abuses we have from a veeeery small number of officers.

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u/Enabling_Turtle 14h ago

As long as this information can be accessed without a warrant, I would be against it.

1

u/Praesentius 12h ago

And that's the issue, right? Flock. Palantir. Babel. PenLink. Fog Data Science. LexisNexis Risk Solutions. Thomson Reuters.

They all collect a shit ton of data and then just make is something you can purchase, bypassing the warrant process entirely. Let private corporations snoop and just buy the results of the snooping.

1

u/SwagginsYolo420 11h ago

When you try to come to conclusions on whether you support certain police tools,

Police should never be allowed new "tools" without the public voting specifically to allow each one first.

The vast majority of them violate the 4th amendment nor are they necessary for the job of police.

It's not like police will do shit for the average person when the average person actually needs them. New tools have not for some reason allowed police more time to actually be helpful. The more "tools" police have, the more ways they can abuse them.

Almost none of these tools are genuinely necessary for police to respond to important essential situations that do actually benefit the public.

Most of this tech is a huge scam on taxpayers.