Birbla

Join the discussion

Write your take first — we'll ask for email only when you're ready to publish.

Sign in
  • Hacker News
  • They will just switch to Axon
    by arkhiver
  • Then society may just regulate the technology.
    by ncr100
  • My angle grinder is vendor-agnostic.
    by sneak
  • Does Axon offer the same sort of national, single-database that Flock does?

    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.

    by asteroidburger
  • Isn't it a bit disingenuous to refer to them as merely license plate readers?
    by e2le
  • Isnt it a bit disingenuous to imply that license plate readers aren't infringing enough to be a problem?
    by protocolture
  • Cop-issued spousal trackers. 50 cases and counting.
    by lemoncookiechip
  • They're not, according to "Authorities".

    > 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...

    by esalman
  • Maybe we need to upgrade the system to be more like...

    To use this service copy and paste your authorization:

    634534534535453454565646567880123843489579823374234

    Thank you!

    Your authorization gives you permission to search for plate 5VFA213 only. Signed by Judge Ja....

    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.

    by throwitaway222
  • I've been thinking about this for a while. The only place I want flock cameras is at the entrances of the mall parking lot. I can't articulate why that seems acceptable, and yet I view everywhere else as an overstep.
    by jmpman
  • * Flock (YC S17)

    https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/flock-safety

    by sneak
  • YC has somehow managed to be affiliated with some of the most egregiously crap companies along with the okay ones.
    by ofjcihen
  • Is this the reason why this story is flagged and pushed down to 2nd page?
    by blackoil
  • There are multiple cases of people being falsely imprisoned because police believed Flock over actual evidence. In each case Flock was wrong.
    by aussieguy1234
  • Yes and in each case of people being correctly imprisoned, Flock was right. That's because it's a tautology.
    by hackernud3s

  •     "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.
    Even if for some strange reason you're OK with the police having access to the surveillance data (despite multiple recent articles revealing abuse), I'd like to think most people would take issue with random third parties also having access to it.

    Flock cameras and their ilk are not OK in a civilized, free society.

    by atmavatar
  • By the exact same token, the same thing applies to payment cards and cashless systems in general, but everyone seems to be fine with universal suspicionless surveillance by a private compant in that case.
    by sneak
  • There is an expansion to the surveillance. The cameras now get additional phone tracking abilities: https://archive.is/Tkwc3
    by frm88
  • For what legitimate reason would Flock be giving 1,200 vendors access to the city’s information? I don’t see how they’re going to be able to feasibly walk back from this without taking a massive punch to their business.

    And also great timing because Flock almost swept it all under the rug [1]:

    1: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/flock-ceo-apologizes-surveillan...

    by SlightlyLeftPad
  • "Authorities have charged or accused at least 50 law-enforcement officers of using license-plate readers for unauthorized purposes, including to stalk women without their knowledge or consent, a Post analysis of police and court records found.

    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."

    https://archive.is/fxZWT

    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

    by neom
  • The ones here (not in Texas) were being queried by Texas cops looking for women getting out of state abortions.
    by viccis