this post was submitted on 09 Aug 2026

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348

US Cities Cancel 50+ Flock Surveillance Contracts Amid Public Backlash (townflex.com)

submitted 16 hours ago by FoxtrotDeltaTango@sh.itjust.works to c/technology@lemmy.world

29 comments fedilink hide all child comments

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/50445196

top 29 comments

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[–] some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 7 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Cities Are Ditching Flock, Immediately Replacing It With Axon License Plate Readers

[–] SkaveRat@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 hour ago

The problem when the protests are too specific

[–] jaybone@lemmy.zip 16 points 10 hours ago

Soon they will start spinning up the corporate owned media to manufacture the appearance of support for having the cameras. Which city councils can then cite when they start the contracts again and accept their bribes.

[–] dan1101@lemmy.world 27 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Way too much unethical shit is getting implemented without community involvement.

[–] WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

I don't understand why here in Europe people are not standing up to it, even usa people hate it!

[–] Regrettable_incident@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago

TBF we already have hugely invasive surveillance, at least here in the UK. Successive governments have cut policing and invested in cameras instead. It hasn't made us safer, but we kind of got boiled-frogged into living in a panopticon. There was a bit of negative publicity recently about use of facial recognition at choke-points like major public transport hubs - but it never really went anywhere. Make people feel scared and they will give up their rights for the illusion of security.

[–] grue@lemmy.world 51 points 14 hours ago (2 children)

Watch out for them immediately contracting with Axon instead, which is just as bad.

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 5 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

lets hope the awareness of axon picking up as much as flock.

[–] Maeve@kbin.earth 1 points 2 hours ago

We have to keep posting it.

[–] Maeve@kbin.earth 5 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

And nexstar, door dash, uber, probably instacart.

[–] sic_semper_tyrannis@lemmy.today 5 points 7 hours ago

I saw an article about trash trucks putting cameras on them for one of these surveillance companies. Giant fleets of trucks with cameras mounted 15ft high able to see over fences

[–] kuiskaaja@lemmy.ml 26 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

no one couldve possibly predicted that capitalist mass surveillance was a bad idea

[+] iopq@lemmy.world -32 points 13 hours ago (2 children)

It's actually a good idea? You don't have expectation of privacy when you're outside. It's legal for anyone to install a camera pointing outside.

[–] TransNeko@lemmy.world 8 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

so you are ok with the police officers who used Flock to stalk and rape people.

Got it. when you are a victim of Flock and get raped/killed by a stalker who used Flock. I'll remember to point out that you were ok with Flock before you were personally affected. typical fucking Republican... you don't give a shit until it affects you.

[–] Darkassassin07@lemmy.ca 3 points 8 hours ago

Your presumptions aren't helpful in the slightest. Educate, don't enflame.

Being unaware of the ramifications is not even remotely the same as being ok with them.

[–] iopq@lemmy.world -5 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

I didn't say that

[–] Wizard_Pope@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago

But that is the reality of the situation

[–] Darkassassin07@lemmy.ca 24 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago) (2 children)

One camera isnt the problem.

A whole network of cameras tracking your every move, logged in a national database that doesn't require a warrant or oversight is.

Police require a warrant to get your phones location data, but they don't require one to ask Flock for your every move. This has already been abused hundreds of times by police and city employees to stalk their ex partners and more..

Here's one article of many

[–] Maeve@kbin.earth 2 points 11 hours ago

Unless they're Intel.

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/04/trump-congress-fisa-spy-court-fbi-bill/

[+] iopq@lemmy.world -16 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Not every move. Only moves in public where recording with your phone is already legal

[–] Darkassassin07@lemmy.ca 12 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) (1 children)

Flock effectively follows you around like a stalker.

If I was to follow you around all day, recording everything you do (even if I just stay in public spaces), I would be guilty of harassment and potentially criminal stalking. Flock does the same thing, just via a network of cameras instead of literally following you in person.

There are tons of public cameras, but they're owned by seprate individuals/companies. You'd be required to get permission from each ones owner to collect their footage, which in itself provides saftey against stalkers. The owners of that footage are in no way obligated to provide it and will likely refuse without being given a good reason. They may even still refuse until provided with a court order. That oversight, from both the footage owners and the courts that order it to be handed over, protects people from unlawful harassment, particularly stalkers.

The fact that Flock provides anyone with a badge/title the ability to freely search a massive database for every public location a person has been, what they were wearing, how they walk, what bluetooth devices they had, their mode of transport (plus every detail about it Flock can extract), facial recognition data, and more - is terrifying. 0 oversight: no warrant, no reasonable suspicion, no evidence of a crime; just following you around hoping to catch you doing something they don't like (regardless of whether it's illegal activity or not).

If you haven't yet, you should really read that article I posted above.

A single search query recruits that entire network as a passive tracking apparatus. An officer who sets a specific plate on a "hot list" receives an automatic alert whenever that vehicle appears anywhere in the system — across city limits, across state lines, across jurisdictions the officer has no authority in. The abuser does not need to be present. The cameras do the watching for him.

[–] iopq@lemmy.world -5 points 6 hours ago (2 children)

I see nothing wrong with what you're doing in public being available to law enforcement. It's already legal to record it, a cop can pull out his phone and record you and it's not illegal already

[–] Archimedes@sh.itjust.works 4 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

You're forefathers are weeping from the grave. Land of the Free. Lol.

[–] iopq@lemmy.world 0 points 2 hours ago

I'm forefathers?

[–] Darkassassin07@lemmy.ca 5 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago) (1 children)

Did you read the article provided?

Even a police officer cannot just follow someone around all day every day, without reasonable articulable suspicion. They would also be guilty of harassment and/or criminal stalking.

Again, it's not that a camera is recording that's the problem. It's the infrastructure behind those cameras that aggregate all the data into a single database which requires no cause to search. Anyone with a badge/title can track anyone throughout the whole country, with no probable cause, no warrant, and no oversight. They don't even have to say why they're searching the system.

An ex partner fleeing an abusive boyfriend/girlfriend that happens to be a police officer (or that has a police officer buddy) can and will be hunted down by that ex, and nobody will know until it's too late. This system directly puts people in danger.

at least 50 documented cases across the United States in which law enforcement officers have been charged with or accused of misusing AI-powered automated license plate reader systems to conduct unauthorized surveillance of intimate partners, ex-partners, or women they wanted to meet. In 26 of those cases, prosecutors and investigators concluded that officers used the technology specifically to spy on wives, girlfriends, former partners, their exes' new partners, or women they sought to approach.

These systems also get used by government agencies (on both sides of the spectrum) to track anyone that disagrees with their political stance, fishing for ways to harass, jail, or run them out of town/state. Governments given this type of power stop being democracies and become dictatorships; because anyone that could or would challenge them get hunted down.

I see nothing wrong with what you're doing in public being available to law enforcement.

It wouldn't be a problem if every person with access to this system was 100% honest and just; but thats simply not the reality of the world. There are ALWAYS people that will abuse these types of tools for evil purposes. That's why we have a court system instead of just making every police officer 'judge, jury, and executioner'.

Flock removes the court system and puts all the power in every single officers hands. That is NOT a good thing.

'Every police officer has good intentions' is a fantasy. If you can't see that, you've spent way too much time inside.

[–] iopq@lemmy.world -1 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

There are thousands of cases of finding missing persons using cameras

https://www.whsv.com/2026/08/01/deputy-uses-flock-cameras-find-missing-girl-less-than-30-minutes/

If you compare to 50 instances of abuse, is that a good tradeoff

[–] Wizard_Pope@lemmy.world 2 points 1 hour ago

It's not a good trade off. Just because dystopian surveillance sometimes does something good does not outweigh all the bad it does on a regular basis

[–] Zahille7@lemmy.world 19 points 14 hours ago

It's a start

[–] BassTurd@lemmy.world 11 points 14 hours ago

I was debating someone about this. I said we need for of the pole cutting and destruction while the other person said that's not okay and we need to go through proper channels. I said we tried and were shut down. Glad to see I was right.