Flock is bad but they aren’t the only ones. All the camera providers work with the police and some don’t even disclose it. I remember watching a John Oliver bit where they got their hands on the logs of the cameras the police accessed and for how long. One of them was in a local gym during the yoga class.
I don’t know if this incident involved Flock or a competing product, but John Oliver recently described an incident on his show that demonstrates one of the major issues with this technology.
Apparently an ALPR reported a “hit” on the license plate of an SUV in a shopping center parking lot. The vehicle was reported stolen. So a half dozen or so police performed a felony arrest of the woman in the car along with a number of family members, including small children.
The problem was that while the letters & numbers on the license plate matched, the actual stolen vehicle was a motorcycle from a completely different state. So if any of those half-dozen cops had bothered to confirm even one additional detail about the stolen vehicle then this wouldn’t have happened.
How will Flock improve their technology so that police actually do more than the bare minimum when being told of an ALPR “hit”?
The police will always take any excuse to justify their love for unlawful searches and seizures.
That is the reason why they don’t take any extra steps to confirm the information is correct, because they view it as the perfect alibi for their many crimes and constitutional violations - the AI made me do it.
As I understand it, any and all “audits” and “guardrails” are all entirely internal to Flock and law enforcement themselves, and therefore, absolutely useless.
Like social media itself, it’s going to be up to the judiciary and civil lawsuits to fix this shit. (Though the widespread vigilantism is heartening.) I don’t think there will be any meaningful regulation until some cop somewhere deletes his entire family after using Flock to stalk and hunt them down. (And let’s be honest, here in the US even that might not be enough.)
A good few of them are set in concrete. I’ve seen posts from someone online called the_guardrail_guy, who goes around and checks the regulations on guardrails making sure they’re not too close to the road or anything. He’s looked directly at multiple flock cameras, and each one he’s recorded himself inspecting has been set in concrete.
I might give a little support if the cameras would help prevent police brutality, but pretty sure the cameras we need would suddenly malfunction at the worst times.
I’ll consider giving support after there’s a wave of police getting held accountable for abuses, and headlines of the police unions demanding for flock cameras to be taken down. However I’m not holding my breath.
For now it seems like they are just supposedly adding ways to possibly catch cops who are, using the cameras for illegal stuff like spying on swimming pools, yoga classes, or stalking ex’s…
that the Audit Assistance can flag “what may look like an odd search history from a specific user,” helping customers understand how their users are operating the system.
A flag does not mean that it is definitely abuse — it only means it warrants further investigation.”
Helping the customer => entirely dependent on how the violating org handles these.
Even usefulness is entirely dependent on how effective the flags are in the first place. If false positives are too high, even good intended may call not worth it.
It may even be counter-productive if perpetrators cheer each other on when getting flags but no consequences.
Without transparency on 1. flag conditions 2. number of flags per org 3. results of org response/flag-flagging… who wants to trust this?
It’s just a list of their customers.
"You won’t even need to delete the video. We’ll identify it and label that camera as ‘malfunctioning’ during that period for you."
Flock is bad but they aren’t the only ones. All the camera providers work with the police and some don’t even disclose it. I remember watching a John Oliver bit where they got their hands on the logs of the cameras the police accessed and for how long. One of them was in a local gym during the yoga class.
youtu.be/lnBPhelCdWE the whole episode is really worth watching.
Yeah at least they’re honest about it!!
I don’t know if this incident involved Flock or a competing product, but John Oliver recently described an incident on his show that demonstrates one of the major issues with this technology.
Apparently an ALPR reported a “hit” on the license plate of an SUV in a shopping center parking lot. The vehicle was reported stolen. So a half dozen or so police performed a felony arrest of the woman in the car along with a number of family members, including small children.
The problem was that while the letters & numbers on the license plate matched, the actual stolen vehicle was a motorcycle from a completely different state. So if any of those half-dozen cops had bothered to confirm even one additional detail about the stolen vehicle then this wouldn’t have happened.
How will Flock improve their technology so that police actually do more than the bare minimum when being told of an ALPR “hit”?
False positives are a feature, not a bug.
The police will always take any excuse to justify their love for unlawful searches and seizures.
That is the reason why they don’t take any extra steps to confirm the information is correct, because they view it as the perfect alibi for their many crimes and constitutional violations - the AI made me do it.
This isn’t the first time police have followed up on a license plate without confirming the make and model to assure it’s the same vehicle.
It’s a preventable problem.
The real problem is that law enforcement don’t care, any more than they do when they SWAT the wrong house.
As I understand it, any and all “audits” and “guardrails” are all entirely internal to Flock and law enforcement themselves, and therefore, absolutely useless.
Like social media itself, it’s going to be up to the judiciary and civil lawsuits to fix this shit. (Though the widespread vigilantism is heartening.) I don’t think there will be any meaningful regulation until some cop somewhere deletes his entire family after using Flock to stalk and hunt them down. (And let’s be honest, here in the US even that might not be enough.)
Dialog box: Have you committed an abuse? Yes / No
given how much is a labor costs - I suspect foam might even be more efficient.
also - are those poles set in concrete? I suspect some of those delinquents could just pull the pole out entirely.
A good few of them are set in concrete. I’ve seen posts from someone online called the_guardrail_guy, who goes around and checks the regulations on guardrails making sure they’re not too close to the road or anything. He’s looked directly at multiple flock cameras, and each one he’s recorded himself inspecting has been set in concrete.
Flock Surveillance State says its new tool will help identify police abuse, but hasn’t explained how it works because it’s bullshit
Hint: chat gippity.
I might give a little support if the cameras would help prevent police brutality, but pretty sure the cameras we need would suddenly malfunction at the worst times.
I’ll consider giving support after there’s a wave of police getting held accountable for abuses, and headlines of the police unions demanding for flock cameras to be taken down. However I’m not holding my breath.
For now it seems like they are just supposedly adding ways to possibly catch cops who are, using the cameras for illegal stuff like spying on swimming pools, yoga classes, or stalking ex’s…
Let me guess, they will police themselves…
It identifies it so that it can be covered up.
Hope that clears it up.
It’s not just flock. Companies like Lexis nexis are just as bad.
Helping the customer => entirely dependent on how the violating org handles these.
Even usefulness is entirely dependent on how effective the flags are in the first place. If false positives are too high, even good intended may call not worth it.
It may even be counter-productive if perpetrators cheer each other on when getting flags but no consequences.
Without transparency on 1. flag conditions 2. number of flags per org 3. results of org response/flag-flagging… who wants to trust this?
That’s because nobody can explain exactly how the 🌈 imagination ✨ works.
I suppose you could achieve this with a constantly illuminated red light.
If they really wanted to avoid abuse, they would require a court order for any search carried out by law enforcement.