Flock Cameras and similar seem to invite abuse. For instance, the Daily Mail reports on a man who recently won a lawsuit against the Bexar County Sheriff, in Texas, for violating his right against an unlawful seizure. The man was subjected to a 76 minute stop and search of his vehicle. The deputy who stopped him claimed that the reason for the stop was that the vehicle had crossed the center line, which was later disproven by dashcam footage. The deputy ultimately admitted that he made it up as an excuse to search the man's car. But this is where it gets interesting:
And through the lawsuit, the Houston resident would discover the real reason he was pulled over: A series of Flock surveillance cameras had caught him making a one-day trip to the US-Mexico border. An anonymous law enforcement agent had flagged it as suspicious.
A separate article from Slay News, "Florida Officials Discover Mysterious Network of Flock AI Surveillance Cameras with Unknown Operators," is more unsettling. The article relates that after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ordered all Flock surveillance cameras to be removed across the state, St. Lucie County moved ahead with the request. According to their records and the permits that had been issued for Flock cameras, there were 52 in the county. But a sweep discovered another 14 being operated without permits. Three of these turned out to be operated by the Sheriff's Department (which raises its own issues of why the department had failed to get the necessary permits) but the remaining 11 are still unaccounted for--the county has no idea who operates them. Per the article:
Flock offered to help review the cameras.
A company spokesperson told The Washington Post that Flock often handles permits “where required, but permitting requirements vary by jurisdiction and are not necessary in every location.”
The company said it had contacted St. Lucie County and was “happy to work with them directly to review the cameras in question and address any discrepancies.”
In other words, we will never know who was operating those cameras or why.
Flock is evil.
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