issue:
Flock Cameras
Our Need: We must assure our 4th Amendment right to privacy by establishing standards and rules BEFORE we activate any surveillance cameras. This will not hamper law enforcement —we still have all the standard strengths of our police and law enforcement groups to catch criminals, as they always have.
Perspective
Flock cameras (a specific brand, but there are others; the term “flock” is already used to describe a camera-based surveillance tool) are being installed in our communities without your knowledge or approval. They sounded like a good idea at first, when they were touted as license plate readers that could take snapshots of the backs of cars, placed on highways to help spot vehicles identified as being used in crimes (think stolen cars, child abductions). Sounded like maybe an American version of the CCTV they have in public places in Britain, right?
But in the USA there is no underlying regulated infrastructure, no set of rules governing their use. Flock cameras are not simple traffic cameras, not just photo or video recorders. They record everything they detect and report all the data they collect—down to the dents or scratches on a car—into an AI database for further use. This alone has me concerned. Our tax dollars pay for this surveillance.
There are models of flock cameras in use that can pan, tilt, zoom, and follow. Flock cameras are connected to AI and its enormous computing power, and are used to track all movements of everyone, more like what China does in tracking its population’s movements.
And the AI does make mistakes—people have been arrested for violations based on its mistakes, not based on eye-witnessed evidence. This has forced anyone wrongly arrested to prove their innocence in a system set up to require that we prove guilt. At their own expense and under the disruptive burden to their lives, those wrongly accused must fight to prove their innocence whether or not they have expertise with surveillance or with understanding AI limitations.
These cameras are being hacked—there aren’t even password protections—and used to watch people in virtually any location they are present, not just in cars on roads.
I urge everyone to take a few minutes to watch short videos from communities who’ve been through this—I learned a lot this way.
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If you have about 2 minutes: https://youtube.com/shorts/tj5Xbji9VEA “They Pushed Back on Flock AI Surveillance…” Note that anyone who pushes back is being labeled a “terrorist” by the Flock company CEO—current surveys would say that’s ~90% of citizens!
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Or this: https://youtube.com/shorts/YwVBsFD7v84 “How exactly does remotely spying on kids practicing gymnastics make them safer?”
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If you have 11 minutes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vU1-uiUlHTo “This Flock Camera Leak is Like Netflix for Stalkers”
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If you have time for a deeper expose on the pros and cons, and the Flock company (~40 minutes):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3MQLlMbS-Y
“Investigating Flock: America’s Mass Surveillance Company”
I was alarmed by all of this. Then in the past few weeks, more than 50 law enforcement officers around the country have been arrested for using flock cameras on stalking type charges (of women, girls, family members); more were found to be doing the same thing, but there are no rules preventing them from those actions where they live.
Out of an abundance of caution, flock cameras should be removed/deactivated until laws governing their use and the data they collect are fully fleshed out. We are not hampering law enforcement with such a move—we still have all the standard strengths of our police and law enforcements to catch criminals, as they always have.
