this post was submitted on 12 Jul 2026
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A simple error got magnified by Flock's nationwide surveillance camera network and ended with four cop cars boxing me in.

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[–] quick_snail@feddit.nl 14 points 11 hours ago

we’d just gotten back in the Range Rover and reversed maybe two feet out of the spot when four cop cars came flying out of nowhere and boxed us in. The officers jumped out and started shouting

OP is sooooo lucky to be white

[–] rekabis@lemmy.ca 5 points 10 hours ago

It’s time people started to pack a dark hoodie and a battery powered angle grinder wherever they go.

These cameras need to be taken down the instant they appear.

[–] quick_snail@feddit.nl 4 points 11 hours ago

Flock was literally built for this (to track stolen cars), not how it's frequently used (for police to stalk ex girlfriends)

...and they can't even do the one thing they were designed for.

[–] quick_snail@feddit.nl 2 points 11 hours ago

It should be legal to obscure your license plate until all flock cameras are dismantled, and AI usage is banned for use by police

[–] imapuppetlookaway@lemmy.world 13 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago)

That was worse than i expected:

"As we all stood there shaking our heads, including my wife, who was finally allowed to join me, I connected the final dot. A lot of vehicles in JLR’s media fleet have a New Jersey manufacturer plate with the same alphanumeric structure—34 ## DTM—and Officer Ganshyn observed that meant it was now a nationwide issue. Anywhere a police department has a partnership with Flock, any other JLR-owned car with the same plate structure is going to get flagged as stolen. In fact, four other 34 ## DTM cars were being tracked around Minnesota that week, according to Officer Ganshyn. I was just the first one to get nabbed. The only way to stop it would be for the LAPD to correct their initial report and update Flock’s system, which Jaguar Land Rover was now racing to make happen following the phone call."

[–] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 38 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago) (2 children)

So many fucking horror stories about Flock and how their cameras are misused. The one that makes my skin crawl the most was the Texas cop who stalked someone traveling out of state for an abortion, seeing as how one's geographical location here in the US largely dictates their right to privacy and bodily autonomy. (And it's a clear violation of civil liberties to stalk them using a nationwide dragnet.)

If anyone's bored, I made a video this week about a vigilante in Suffolk Virginia who (allegedly) destroyed more than a dozen of them.

[–] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 14 points 19 hours ago (2 children)

You should read up on cops stalking women. It is terrifying especially since there is a massive power indifference

[–] BillCheddar@lemmy.world 1 points 10 hours ago

I know of a cop who is an officer who was hired to be an officer in one city despite being fired for overlooking a DUI in exchange for oral sex at his previous police officer job.

[–] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 5 points 19 hours ago

I've read about that. You're not wrong. Literal horror movie shit.

[–] Anonymouse@lemmy.world 5 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

I daydream that this guy will threaten to sue the police and they'll come to an agreement to take down all all the cameras. The citizens will be so happy that they'll go to the state legislature and pass a law to forbid warrantless surveilence. The state will rejoice and their congressional representatives will pass a law country wide. The trend will continue globally.

[–] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 2 points 18 hours ago

I do think eventually litigation is going to limit this Flock nonsense, but it'll be after a spectacularly violent event. Some stalker's going to kill a whole family and that'll do it.

[–] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 3 points 19 hours ago

Flock continues to shoot itself in the foot