There’s been a great deal of backlash against Flock cameras, with constant vandalism and numerous reports of crooked cops misusing them, leading to more and more communities to cancel their contracts. While Flock has received the most backlash, there are other ALPR companies out there. Rather than ending their use of technology that spies on you, and in a move that doesn’t really solve the problems associated with mass surveillance, some departments that have dropped Flock have simply switched to other companies that do the same thing, reports NPR.
One of those competitors is Axon. If that name sounds familiar, it’s probably because you’ve seen it displayed on body cam videos, since Axon is the leading supplier of body cams to law enforcement, according to The Intercept. After a bit of rebranding in 2017 (the same year Flock was founded), many people don’t know that Axon is the company formerly known as Taser, the electrical stun gun — another technology that police never, ever misuse.
While Flock had to develop not only its technology, but also its law enforcement contacts and clients, Axon already had the clients in its Rolodex thanks to its other products. Law enforcement agencies may be fleeing from Flock contracts like rats from a sinking ship, but they still want ALPR technology. In places like Denver, Colorado, for example, switching ALPR providers is easy when you’re getting your new camera tracking access through a supplier you likely already do business with.
Every time an article like this comes and you are tempted to reply to the seemingly inevitable creeping surveillance apparatus with “well, it can’t stop a paintball/hacksaw/.50 cal/etc. etc.” you need to stop.
Stop for a moment and listen to yourself. Look at the bigger picture. I admire the bravado and pushback but does this really sound like a reasonable solution to a systemic issue? That’s like saying “if I think there’s cockroaches infesting my house, I’ll just step on everyone I see” Like that is going to solve the problem.
(And honestly, are you really going to get off your lazy ass, go buy a portable angle grinder and go cut down a light pole in the middle of the night? Really? How many beers does that take?)
So, next time you want to post something like that, instead, just post a link in support to the person, be it a politician or advocate, who is willing to legislate against this encroachment of privacy.
Oh, you don’t know of any?
Well maybe that’s actually getting to the heart of the problem.
This is true everywhere, but especially in the US, if you are looking right now at current events aghast with a feeling of doom rolling over you- that is the sign.
It’s time to stop being a passive acceptor of circumstances. It’s time to act.
We have to dig political aspirants out of the woodwork and push them onto the stage. There is somebody in your area that is capable of advocating for your rights. You need to find them.
If you can’t find a local group. Start a discord, IRC, hell facebook page, what ever, just start connecting people in your town, in your neighborhood. All it takes is a few minutes a day to start.
You have to be politically active. Or else your future is going in the meat grinder. Nobody is coming to save you.
There is no group who has an interest in keeping you, your society, your children, your futures, free from fascist control. Not the DNC, not the State government, not city hall. There is only you and your friends. You have to fight for it yourselves. When the garden is left untended the weeds take over. The weeds have taken over. It’s time to return to the garden.
It can be done. The people hold all the power - Provided They Are Given A Plan of Action To Follow. You need to help craft that plan. Organizing and agitating gets results. Facts.
Stop posting bullshit on Lemmy and start posting real shit in your local advocacy group.
halloween is coming, just saying
I’m going to take this opportunity to ask: what actually reduces crime and improves public safety?
I feel like I should know the answer to this already (education and universal healthcare) but yet the discussion of crime reduction always revolves around increased police presence and surveillance technology.
You forgot equity.
A piece of the pie helps as well.
Education and all that we have in spades right now, but ask young people how wages are.
You know what doesn’t stop crime? A camera.
That’s OK I’m sure our reciprocating saws will work in both.
High vis vest, hard hat, mask, telescoping pole and a plastic bag with glue could be used for “maintenance”.
You just wait, soon they will be replaced with Gopnik.
And guess which company gets product placement in The Rookie with both name and logo every time there’s body cam footage in a scene (which happens every episode, usually several times per)?
That’s right, Axon!
That and all the copaganda REALLY gets in the way of enjoying the charm of Nathan Fillion 😮💨
If it looks like a flock, acts like a flock… then it’s a flock camera. Different names doesn’t mean anything. They should all go away.
San Diego approves smart streetlight cameras
San Diego police will soon be able to rely on surveillance cameras and license plate readers attached to 500 streetlights citywide, after the City Council approved their use Tuesday.
Also, we have this style, mounted high up on poles at the major intersections in my town, well out of reach of vandalism.
Yes, I know these are likely not used for the tracking people, or at least weren’t originally installed for that. But, what’s to keep them from upgrading or replacing them with ones that look the same to serve the same function as Flock cameras? No one would even notice. Sensor resolution, and optics for small cameras keeps improving.
The nearby city had a whackadoo mayor whose plan was wifi APs at every Xth streetlight: residents could use the free city wifi while they drove down the highway.
What didn’t happen? Streetlight APs.
What happened? An amazing shift forward to laying fibre under every construction project and connecting the parts later, to cover a sizeable portion in city-oened fibre infra. They’re gonna cover everything and start connecting people.
But not out of range of a paintball gun.
Or a drone with spray paint.
I was personally thinking a pseumatic gun with a solid projectile shot, would probably take a lot of testing to get the right range, accuracy, and power though.
Crazy how .50cal airguns aren’t federally classified as firearms.
Well for one there’s ideally no fire involved. But also we are talking about something that has limited manufacturing and hasn’t been used for anything large scale yet so yeah. Also would you really trust the current federal government to classify a sandwich? Let alone anything more complex.
Do you mean one of the many pneumatic airguns you can buy for hunting and the like? The ones that aren’t classified as firearms and thus aren’t nearly as legally restricted or regulated as firearms despite being able to deliver similar accuracy and kinetic force?
And yes, the fed hasn’t been super great at making logical distinctions between objects in general commerce. They’re silly.
I said limited manufacturing as in its probably still behind crossbows in production numbers, should’ve been more specific in that I didn’t mean limited production run. In my defense I have not slept well in like 4 days.
Paint doesn’t typically work on them.
Why not?
If paint is ineffective and those bubbles are made from plastic, there is very likely a solvent that would permanently make the plastic hazy by partially dissolving the surface. I think acetone or MEK would do the trick to polycarbonate but you’d want to test at home.
Then maybe Japan’s Bohan Yo Kara Boru (anticrime color balls)
Or supposedly the police grade pepper spray ones also contain a marking agent.
Surely the pole it’s mounted on connects to something…?
Well, yes. Usually mounted on extensions to a traffic light pole. You’re not cutting it down with a hacksaw, at least.
Imagine this on top of a traffic light:
To be fair, there’s a lot of those that are just traffic light cameras. They look for a car to pull up before they let the lights change. Cut them down and the traffic lights stop working.
Are these like street lights where they are mounted to break-away bases? because then you just need a big wrench, no saws needed.
And climbing gear.
Cop cars have ALPR’s mounted on their trunk lids too. America is hung up on “Flock” instead of the states and federal government surveillance everyone, legally innocent or guilty, for everything.
Within seconds, Axon Outpost, a compact, solar-powered ALPR camera perched quietly on a nearby pole, flags a match: silver SUV, roof rack, visible bumper sticker. It sends the alert to AxonFusus, which instantly cross-references the livestream with a dozen other nearby feeds, pulls the path of travel, and pushes it straight to officers in the field. Within minutes, the child is found safe
Correction: within minutes, heavily armed trigger happy police murder a black man to discover there is no child, and that the AI powered system made another false-positve
They call paramedics to collect the dead body, and immediately drive away in a frenzy to attack the next innocent person due to the near constant steam of alerts from this hallucinating system.
I fully expected that. Flock gets to be the sacrificial lamb for the surveillance camera industry.
Inevitable. The next generation will be imperceptible and thus impossible to vandalize.
Vandalism was never a permanent solution. Accountability for local elected officials who think their constituents are idiots is the solution.
No. This too can be covered in spray paint and be cut down
I appreciate the enthusiasm, but how will you cut this down? This is where they’ll be mounted next:
Also, the only reason there’s been any success is because of social awareness. I have no doubt those types of posts are now being stifled. Perhaps you can fly a drone up and paint a lens, but almost no one else will even if you do. That’s beyond the skill set of most people.
Vandalism isn’t going to work, it needs to be addressed at the policy level, that means protests, attending city council meetings, and paying attention and voting in local elections. Not nearly so fun to post videos of this for likes on social media.
A 4.5 inch angle grinder.
