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LAPD lets contract with surveillance giant Flock expire

techcrunch.com

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Re: LAPD lets contract with surveillance giant Flock expire

#141

Post by clickety_clack »

wilg wrote: post #127
gxs wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn’t know this but it’s the kind of stuff our tax dollars pay for and ultimately why I’m so disgruntled about the high taxes we pay - especially in the middle class No problem paying taxes - my entire gripe is with what what the moneys spent on

The US has below average middle class tax rates. But luckily we can just choose what our tax dollars are spent on through democracy! The main problem is nobody agrees about anything and lots of people are really dumb and can't handle the responsibility of electing competent people into government.

It would be a mistake to assume that people who don’t agree with you are really dumb.

Re: LAPD lets contract with surveillance giant Flock expire

#142

Post by crote »

vablings wrote: post #47
someperson wrote: post #8

Are there any privacy-first security camera provider where it's the city that manages data access and uses it purely for local law enforcement purposes?

It's astonishing to me that the largest tech hubs in the world do not have the money to invest in developing a camera system that is sovereignly owned by the city. There are a lot of very talented engineers who would work on a project like this. Also simply putting a person in between the information would certainly reduce the profile for abuse with stalking and harassing people

Isn't it obvious? There's way more profit in building a Torment Nexus.

Re: LAPD lets contract with surveillance giant Flock expire

#144

Post by tremon »

bko wrote: post #73
hightrix wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do know. I do not want to live in a society that is under 24/7 surveillance. Of course, if the cops can watch everything you do all the time, there will be less crime. But that is not a sacrifice I’m willing to make.

Cool, I choose to live in a highly policed neighborhood with well funded police. Essentially a gated community. You can enjoy your "freedom", but based on the real estate prices, I think more people have my preference.

Yeah, right. That's why the rich were the first to have the city install Flock cameras on their lawns and driveways, right?

Re: LAPD lets contract with surveillance giant Flock expire

#145

Post by bmau5 »

gxs wrote: post #114
etdznots wrote: post #96

The best part is that flock owns the cameras and the poles so even when the contract expires the cameras keep running and recording data that flock can sell to e.g. CHP, LASD, FBI, Palantir; and LAPD can just call them and access the data the flock scam was engineered to be resilient to political pressure by giving departments and jursidictions this fake exit ability while the data continues to be harvested, it is a…

I didn’t know this but it’s the kind of stuff our tax dollars pay for and ultimately why I’m so disgruntled about the high taxes we pay - especially in the middle class No problem paying taxes - my entire gripe is with what what the moneys spent on

Would love to see someone vibecode an explorer for seeing how their jurisdiction spent their taxes. Denver has a decent explorer here: https://www.denvergov.org/transparency/checkbook#/home?year=...

Re: LAPD lets contract with surveillance giant Flock expire

#146

Post by glaslong »

richwater wrote: post #68
vablings wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think this is true. With the advent of body cameras, cellphones with cameras and FOIA requests you can build a good case if someone violates your rights. The bigger issues are that there is little to no consequence of a flagrant violation of rights because the police union is VERY protective over its members.

The ability to make a case is directly related to how much free time you have and how much money you are able to spend. We cannot just wave this away when the vast majority of people cannot take off time from work or afford to hire attorneys when their rights are violated.

Time you have also directly bounded by how alive you are after the event

Re: LAPD lets contract with surveillance giant Flock expire

#147

Post by Ancapistani »

dude741 wrote: post #143

[flagged]

There is a lot of middle ground between ">100k cameras tracking the movement of every vehicle in the country and retaining those data indefinitely" and "cameras in a private neighborhood in response to a specific crime wave".

Re: LAPD lets contract with surveillance giant Flock expire

#148

Post by mrguyorama »

bko wrote: post #75
annoyingnoob wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> if the cops can watch everything you do all the time, there will be less crime I disagree there. If cops watch us at all times then more crimes will be prosecuted, think they'll just sit bored with nothing happening? They will find things, real or not. The reality is that crime is way down, we do not need more enforcement. Leave us alone already. https://www.opencrime.us/years

What planet do you live on? Go to a low crime neighborhood. Cops are super friendly and basically spend their day happily helping old ladies cross the street or getting cats down from trees. If you think cops like cracking heads and dealing with petty crime that they'll just invent otherwise and use to harass people, you're out of your mind. You really need to get out more.

>Go to a low crime neighborhood. Cops are super friendly and basically spend their day happily helping old ladies cross the street or getting cats down from trees.

>If you think cops like cracking heads

They adore getting to crack heads. That's the entire reason they became cops. They love being able to use their power, rightfully or not, they don't really care.

Cops themselves say this!

Re: LAPD lets contract with surveillance giant Flock expire

#149

Post by mixdup »

dude741 wrote: post #143

[flagged]

There is a difference between this situation, a targeted install in a problem situation, and hundreds of thousands of these cameras at every intersection in the country

Also, Flock cameras are not just on roads. Many institutions use them for surveillance inside buildings. There is a community center in Atlanta that has them and there is evidence that random people with access to all Atlanta area cameras, including Flock employees and police officers in other jurisdictions, were watching juveniles at the pool. More than one deputy at a suburban Atlanta sheriff's department has been fired for abusing Flock cameras to track romantic interests

Like everything else in this country we've taken something that has a useful purpose when used in a limited, controlled fashion and pushed it to the maximum extreme. We can't do anything based on nuance anymore

Re: LAPD lets contract with surveillance giant Flock expire

#150

Post by infecto »

Does it say how many cameras the LAPD pays for or if they are getting rid of the flock software from their org? Folks conflate this a lot but often times most regions have a substantial number of private flock deployments, city owned, rarely directly with the police.

Police get access to software no costs (AFAIK) for BOLO alerts on tags.

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