In 26 of these cases, police investigators and prosecutors said the officers used the technology to spy on their wives, their girlfriends, their exes, their exes’ new partners or women they wanted to meet."
And 3 more just a week ago in Georgia: https://www.cbsnews.com/atlanta/news/3-georgia-deputies-arre...
If you're curious how this plays out in practice, investigation room video of an officer who confesses to using one to create an alert on a woman so he could pull her over later to get her instagram: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3UfAMzz9Lc
"Over 1,200 vendors had access to our information through the Flock system," Steinmetz said, adding he did not know the identities of all those entities.
Flock cameras and their ilk are not OK in a civilized, free society.
And also great timing because Flock almost swept it all under the rug [1]:
1: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/flock-ceo-apologizes-surveillan...
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The problem isn't flock either. The next system that replaces this is going to be self-charging and swapping out Drones that scan large areas 15 feet above traffic and follow people it hasn't seen on a daily basis (non-normal events). Good luck us.
https://reason.com/2026/08/13/flock-cameras-and-license-plat...
https://katv.com/news/local/sherwood-stop-sparked-after-floc...
For the edit specifically: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/11/human-toll-alpr-errors
> Turns out that the ALPR had misread a ‘3’ as a ‘7’ on Green’s license plate. But what is even more egregious is that none of the officers bothered to double-check the ALPR tip before acting on it.
The first two don't seem like Flock issues at all.
In the first, police used Flock cameras as they would have a closed-circuit camera. They got a vague look at the person driving a suspect car, and they got another lead on the owner of the car, tracked him down on Facebook, and picked out a person from his friends list that looked like the picture on the camera.
In the second, there was a fatal hit-and-run accident involving a Dodge Durango; the police did a dragnet search for Dodges Durango and literally picked the first one they could find parked on the street. They then papered the case backwards to match it to the accident, claiming it had telltale damage (it did not).
Both those cases are police malfeasance, to be sure. But they're not the police believing Flock against all other evidence; they're police essentially manufacturing evidence to clear a case.
There is, at least in Illinois, a pervasive and difficult-to-solve accuracy problem with these systems, which is that Illinois LEADS is full of stale data; it wasn't designed with the expectation that it'd be matched against plates in real time, but rather with patrol cars calling in plates when they pulled them over.
I would just be mindful of how you talk about the subject, if you’re looking for feedback. If not, just ignore me I guess ha
> could reasonably be misconstrued as undue skepticism in favor of flock.
In order to believe that one would have to be hauling in some heavy bags full of bias and force Thomas‘s comments through some rigid filters.
> I would just be mindful of how you talk
Pfff. That’s the most stupid thing I’ve read on this forum in 15 years.
This forum used to be filled with in-depth conversations, back-and-forth that opened one’s mind to many facets of a topic.
Now it’s full of wankers.
This along with the tone of your first comment comes more across as “Not in my backyard”.
The point was his to prove I guess but I can’t help but wonder if you were actually interested in being convinced you wouldn’t have just taken the time to do a quick GPT/Google search.
> Authorities believe the at-large criminals snuck up behind the cameras with spray foam canisters and sprayed the lenses before the cameras had a chance to ID them.
https://www.facebook.com/100064614555569/posts/1467922555371...
edit: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2026/08/19/we-foun...
> At least 69 police officials have been accused, charged with or convicted of misusing Flock’s system or other license-plate readers for unauthorized purposes, The Post has found, and in at least 15 of these cases, someone outside of the police department — including victims, activists and journalists — first identified the potential misuse.
> Records and interviews show that departments across the country do not regularly audit their officers’ Flock use, a practice recommended by the company, and some law enforcement agencies have no formal training programs or written policies describing how the technology should be used.
1) They’ll survive through this hopefully with some kind of significant reform (on paper at the very least)
2) Flock will suffer from the PR and fail, with the idea being filed under “before its time.” Ultimately, the idea persists. Mass surveillance and LPR tech will continue to roll out under a different name or structure.
I'm far more inclined to trust my local department to manage their own database vs. a single database that everyone contributes to and reads from.
https://investor.axon.com/2020-04-02-Axon-Partners-with-Floc...
EDIT: There is a claim they terminated their partnership by last year..but who knows.
https://www.404media.co/cities-are-ditching-flock-immediatel...
Cameras like Flock have obvious value and use cases. They also have obvious misuse cases.
The obvious solution is to adopt and regulate the technology so that I can be used in the way is that the public wants that allows reasonable privacy.
2. I agree that there are legitimate use cases and I still don't want it to exist. I do not trust our government or police force to use this properly, as demonstrated by the abuse that has already happened.
Currently there is a US Green Card holder—a legal permanent resident—who is facing deportation for protesting Palestine apartheid. Not for supporting Hamas, not for called for terrorism, not for attacking anyone. Simply for protesting their homeland being occupied and bombed.
This government is not trustworthy. Police can't be trusted with this ability. There are trade-offs for not having it, fine, but there are trade-offs for having it. The erosion of privacy and liberty is too costly.
How would something be regulated without doing the work of actually passing the regulation?
In order to have the laws we want, we have to create them. It takes work and it would be nice if we didn't have to do it, but that seems like yelling at the clouds.
I’m all for the positive use cases, and have been involved with several similar products, but in this case Flock has completely mishandled the situation and created the situation they now find themselves in.
Another part of that obvious solution is to take them down until those sufficient regulations and civilian oversight of police are in place.