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All of Winona Police Department's Flock cameras cut down and stolen

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Re: All of Winona Police Department's Flock cameras cut down and stolen

#161
post #39

Seems these days the only cross-partisan agreement is resistance to Flock and Axon. People don't want Big Brother. Politicians unironically trying to positively refer to them as an enhanced Big Brother is completely tone deaf. And we know that police departments were working with ICE during Metro Surge: > But the Star Tribune found law enforcement agencies around the country searched several Twin Cities suburbs’ came…

>Seems these days the only cross-partisan agreement is resistance to Flock and Axon.

Also: Don't sell the World Cup to Private Equity.

Re: All of Winona Police Department's Flock cameras cut down and stolen

#162

So one of the public-private backdoors to erode citizen's rights is being undermined. Such a shame.

[flagged]

So you know how like, "the government" and "private citizens" aren't the same thing, right? Like there are different obligations for both? You do know and understand this, correct? The government has a constitutional requirement not to perform undue/unnecessary search or seizure.

Pretty sure "search" includes "building a panopticon from which all citizens can be viewed at all times", but explain why you disagree.

Re: All of Winona Police Department's Flock cameras cut down and stolen

#163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Do you have any hard numbers from your community on how many cases had flock as crucial to resolving the case? When my community banned them, the police were only able to offer a single vehicle theft case as positive evidence, but the data was being sent to police stations and locally unpopular federal agencies clear across the country. We could have spent the municipal budget on giving the victims a new car with far…

And vehicle theft doesn't even need cameras logging EVERYONE to Flock's databases - just cameras that only report in to the mothership when they see a plate on an internal "most-wanted" list.

Person reports car stolen, cop adds car info to plate reader most wanted list, most wanted list is transmitted to cameras, cameras don't let plate readings leave RAM unless they're 90% or higher confident that it's on the most wanted list.

Re: All of Winona Police Department's Flock cameras cut down and stolen

#164
post #153

If I'm ever on the jury of somebody charged with this, the prosecution has an incredibly high burden to convince me the poles and the cameras on them didn't die of natural causes. Maybe if police weren't using Flock cameras to stalk their ex-wives [1][2]. There's an interesting angle to the Flock issue I heard recently. Some predominantly black communities prefer Flock cameras because they're over-policed, black men…

Classic jury nullification.

Re: All of Winona Police Department's Flock cameras cut down and stolen

#165

I suspect there is more at play here than activism. In many 3rd World places you must conceal/hide surveillance cameras because they are a valuable asset worth stealing.

PSA: third world means non-aligned in the cold war. It's use in 2026 is meaningless at best.

>It's use in 2026 is meaningless at best.

not really. the word has evolved enough that dictionaries and wikipedia acknowledge the common-day usage of "underdeveloped"

Re: All of Winona Police Department's Flock cameras cut down and stolen

#166

Coincidentally, ran into a YouTube short testing how to cut down steel poles quickly yesterday, with battery powered tools. Sawzall, 1m 15s, circular saw 1m, circular saw like 20s. https://youtube.com/shorts/aAc3Kq0bFPs Yet to see anyone describe what to do once they are down. They for sure have all manners of wicked battery backed up trackers etc, I'm sure. (This would be highly illegal to do and you should not do i…

an into a YouTube short testing how to cut down steel poles quickly yesterday, with battery powered tools. Sawzall, 1m 15s, circular saw 1m, circular saw like 20s.

Manual pole cutters have existed for at least 100 years. No batteries. Almost zero noise.

You put one on the pole, walk around the pole once, and it's cut. They were used a lot in the 1970's when people were rebelling against parking meters.

I believe it's part of the opening scene of the film Cool Hand Luke.

Re: All of Winona Police Department's Flock cameras cut down and stolen

#167

> Police use the technology to investigate crimes such as hit-and-runs and to locate missing persons. > No suspects have been identified. Yeah, that tracks. > Camera data is owned by the police department and permanently deleted after 30 days. I assume this means that the police department deletes one local copy?

> raise concerns about data being shared with third-party companies or federal agencies.

What, you don’t like “sharing”? It would be selfish not to “share”!

Truly the move from “send copies to” to “share” is one of the great linguistic dirty tricks the social-media-era firms have pulled.

Especially here, where what’s being “shared” is, in a meaningful sense, operational control and enforcement prerogative.

And don’t get me started on the minimizing formulation “third-party companies and federal agencies”…

Re: All of Winona Police Department's Flock cameras cut down and stolen

#168

So one of the public-private backdoors to erode citizen's rights is being undermined. Such a shame.

[flagged]

The same way we can't have a database of gun owners.

> Are you against people taking videos in public on their cell phones?

That's literally not what's happening, though. And any suggestion that it is comes from either ignorance or lies.

I'll let you in on a little secret: there are things you and I can do that the government cannot do, and the police are the government.

I'll forgive you for thinking that the police are just private citizens.

Re: All of Winona Police Department's Flock cameras cut down and stolen

#169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait until you find out where they get the money from to replace them

The city planning pyramid scheme: buy things you can't afford with bonds so that 20 years later when everyone is done raising their kids and moves out the people who move in have to debt service with crumbling infrastructure and schools.

Bonus points if you pass a bunch of laws and rules that make it nigh on impossible for the next generation to develop any commerce that could possibly pay back your debt right before cashing out all your equity and moving to Idaho or Florida.
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