Cops Keep Getting Arrested for Using Flock's Cameras to Stalk People (404media.co)
- Reference: 0184021980
- News link: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/26/06/21/1939214/cops-keep-getting-arrested-for-using-flocks-cameras-to-stalk-people
- Source link: https://www.404media.co/cops-keep-getting-arrested-for-using-flock-to-stalk-people/
[2]Alternate link via Bruce Schneier
> Local news reports from around the country repeatedly detail police abusing the Flock surveillance system in order to stalk their partners or ex-partners. The contours of each story are much the same, with the police officer in question using their access to the system to repeatedly track a specific person over the course of weeks or months. The cases highlight the fact that Flock can be used to track the whereabouts of individual people, that police do not get a warrant in order to use the system, and that, if they have access to the system, they have the technical ability to look up any license plate they want for any reason they want. An April study by the civil rights group [3]Institute for Justice found that at least 18 police officers have been caught around the country using Flock to stalk a romantic interest in the last few years; another database, called the [4]ALPR Abuse Library , has documented 20 specific cases of "stalking/targeting" around the country.
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> The known cases of police stalking are almost certainly a vast underreporting of the overall abuse, because they largely include only cases in which the behavior was so egregious that it led to police officers being fired, arrested, or both. Flock told 404 Media that it is "aware of 15 incidents of abuse, each surfaced because of the transparency and accountability features deliberately built into our platform.... There are also 140,000 monthly active users of Flock, so the relatively rare instances of abuse, while obviously wrong and awful, are exactly that — rare," a Flock spokesperson told 404 Media. [One in 10,000.] "Humans are fallible; unlike most tools society provide law enforcement, Flock ensures that in the instances when our technology is misused, the evidence used to hold responsible parties accountable, is right there in our system. We also encourage all our customers to have a usage policy, regular training, and to implement our [5]Audit Assistance tool, which proactively flags unintended use...."
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> But it is also the case that Flock has strenuously fought against lawsuits and potential regulations that are seeking to require police to get a warrant to use the system. And many cases of abuse have not been detected by police departments themselves but by those private citizens, journalists, and stalking victims who have found patterns of abuse in public records files they have obtained from their local police departments. In most cases of Flock-related stalking reviewed by 404 Media, the abuse occurred over the course of months or years, and the victims were subjected to dozens or hundreds of lookups. Other abuse cases have been discovered using the website HaveIBeenFlocked.com, a website that compiles Flock searches released via public records requests and turns them into a searchable database. Flock has repeatedly tried to get that website taken down, [6]as we have previously reported .
[1] https://www.404media.co/cops-keep-getting-arrested-for-using-flock-to-stalk-people/
[2] https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2026/06/flock-cameras-are-being-used-for-stalking.html
[3] https://ij.org/police-have-reportedly-used-license-plate-readers-to-stalk-romantic-interests-at-least-14-times-in-recent-years/
[4] https://library.kansas.watch/
[5] https://www.flocksafety.com/trust/compliance-tools
[6] https://www.404media.co/police-unmask-millions-of-surveillance-targets-because-of-flock-redaction-error/
We have to ban these (Score:3, Insightful)
As Lord Acton said: Power tends to corrupt. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
We give a lot of surveillance power to law enforcement already. Adding this temptation is stupid and will not solve the crime problems.
You have to give something up (Score:2)
If you want to ban these you're going to have to give something up. Maybe not you personally but certainly some of the people reading this.
You have to change how you vote and doing that means giving up other issues. These are going to typically be issues that appeal to the right wing, especially culture War issues because you can give those up without it directly impacting your civil rights or your income.
That's a tough sale for a lot of people especially anyone older. And they can always just tell
Re: (Score:1)
This seems to be old vs young instead of left vs right. Both my progressive and GOP friends under 40 hate these things; anyone over 60 seems to love them. The people who have the most stuff seem to want them badly, and everyone else sees them as privacy-destroying nightmares.
I think there's also a party-in-power vs not-in-power dynamic. When Biden surveilled a bunch of large Catholic families via the FBI becuase they liked their religion, GOP railed and Dems turned a blind eye or made excuses. Now that the
Re: (Score:2)
WTF is this about? "When Biden surveilled a bunch of large Catholic families via the FBI because they liked their religion"
One day in prison? (Score:2)
Yeah anyone else would get years.
Re: One day in prison? (Score:2)
I've been to jail. I assume as a cop accused of this level of misconduct, one day probably means he spent from 11.59pm to 12.01am in a holding cell at the police station.
If you have nothing to hide... (Score:3)
You may still have a toxic piece of shit to hide from.
Cheap = abused. (Score:5, Interesting)
The real problem is that the use of the Flock system is cheap. If the cops had to pay $1,000 per search request I guarantee that a police officer would become a gate keeper ensuring that each and every request was valid.
Re: Cheap = abused. (Score:4, Interesting)
But, then we get all the complaints about all the cops say it's not worthwhile to track down felony shoplifters because the searches cost too much.
Won't you think of the cats and dogs?!They're eating the cats and dogs over there and there's nothing we can do to stop them because we don't have the budget to search their license plates.
Re: Cheap = abused. (Score:2)
But CITIZEN! THAT is an OBSTACLE to police investigations!
Don't you want police to investigate crimes!?
You aren't SOFT ON CRIME, are you!? Only criminals would have anything to fear from expanded police powers, citizen!
Remember Citizen, Reauthorizing FISA is absolutely ESSENTIAL to our national security, because the gatekeeping by all those bad, onerous warrants we used to need were OBSTACLES to INVESTIGATION! Those mean, bad terrorists that hate our way of life are aided and abetted by our heroic men and
Re: (Score:2)
The last thing these scummy ALPR companies need is more money.
ACAB (Score:2)
Some cops are bad cops. Some cops are presumably not-bad, but have done a piss poor job of policing the bad cops.
"The rotten apple spoils his companion." — Poor Richard's almanack, 1736
Not everything should exist (Score:2)
This is why you don't create stuff like this. You know what human nature is, and you know not everyone is going to have the self discipline to not abuse these systems.
Flock cops (Score:2)
There, I said it
24/7 round the clock surveillance is abuse (Score:5, Insightful)
It's abuse in and of itself. I am so sick and tired of other people giving up my rights because they don't understand what the repercussions are of giving up their rights. I'm not so stupid that I can pretend I don't have to live in the same society as they do.
But I mean what the hell am I supposed to do in a country where we are about to give the Iranian dictatorship $300 billion of taxpayer money and 37% of the country is cool with that because they think it's going to be private money. Like what the hell do I say to somebody who thinks like that? There is a fundamental breakdown in thought processes in this country with over 1/3 of the country unable to think and reason rationally or competently..
Re: (Score:2)
I half expected you to segue into how it's America's car-centric nature that makes this sort of tracking possible in the first place.
Re: (Score:2)
I thought sure he was going to work the word "billionaire" in there somehow, but the closest he got was "billion". I'm kind of disappointed!