An interactive map of Flock Cams • Hacker News Board

Re: An interactive map of Flock Cams

#111

Post by tonymet » Wed, Mar 04, 2026, 9:55 PM UTC

rationalist wrote: post #43

tonymet wrote: post #37

I volunteer for my city & county , and I'm a privacy advocate, so I have an ambivalent opinion on Flock cameras. Given the completely untenable demands on law enforcement, and extreme driver recklessness , the only practical way to enforce law and order with drivers is some sort of automated surveillance. Since covid, driver recklessness has been out of control. Running reds, extreme speed, escaping police are all co…

> Running reds, extreme speed, escaping police are all common. How do these cameras prevent those crimes?

plate reading help police track down suspects without pursuit. video recording in general help police collect evidence necessary to convict reckless driving.

Re: An interactive map of Flock Cams

#112

Post by culi » Wed, Mar 04, 2026, 9:55 PM UTC

birdo-wordo wrote: post #103

array_key_first wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's literally exactly what civil disobedience is.

No that's uncivil disobedience. The difference is inaction vs action.

> Civil disobedience is the active and nonviolent refusal to obey certain government laws, demands, or commands to achieve social change or protest injustice

Most associated with MLK Jr, who explicitly advocated breaking the law

Re: An interactive map of Flock Cams

#113

Post by buellerbueller » Wed, Mar 04, 2026, 9:55 PM UTC

All this does is incentivize crime doers to steal someone else's license plate first.

Re: An interactive map of Flock Cams

#114

Post by dspillett » Wed, Mar 04, 2026, 9:55 PM UTC

burkaman wrote: post #67

mikece wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, and according to Steve Ballmer (back in the day) Linux Torvalds was a terrorist. People are allowed to say stupid things.

I don't think this is true, I can't even find anyone else claiming this happened.

I don't remember him calling Linus a terrorist, though there were others that associated anything with a copyleft licence to be the loony left (or the commie left).

He certainly referred to both him and Linux as cancers though, that I do remember. He later changed his mind on that, and IIRC may even have publicly apologised for those statements.

Re: An interactive map of Flock Cams

#115

Post by smrq » Wed, Mar 04, 2026, 9:56 PM UTC

birdo-wordo wrote: post #103

array_key_first wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's literally exactly what civil disobedience is.

No that's uncivil disobedience. The difference is inaction vs action.

You might wish to do some cursory research before arguing further. For example, as a starting point, the Wikipedia page on civil disobedience has an entire section labeled "Action" listing counterexamples.

Re: An interactive map of Flock Cams

#116

Post by culi » Wed, Mar 04, 2026, 9:56 PM UTC

pietervdvn wrote: post #9

If you spot missing camera's - Flock or not - you can add them to OSM easily with https://mapcomplete.org/surveillance

Everydoor's UI is also quite nice for this. it even lets you enter in the orientation quite easily

https://every-door.app/

https://github.com/Zverik/every_door

Re: An interactive map of Flock Cams

#117

Post by rationalist » Wed, Mar 04, 2026, 9:56 PM UTC

tonymet wrote: post #111

rationalist wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Running reds, extreme speed, escaping police are all common. How do these cameras prevent those crimes?

plate reading help police track down suspects without pursuit. video recording in general help police collect evidence necessary to convict reckless driving.

It sounds like you're talking about solving crimes, not preventing crimes.

Re: An interactive map of Flock Cams

#118

Post by rl3 » Wed, Mar 04, 2026, 9:58 PM UTC

technol0gic wrote: post #63

mikece wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, and according to Steve Ballmer (back in the day) Linux Torvalds was a terrorist. People are allowed to say stupid things.

by "say stupid things," you of course mean "tell bald-faced lies"

The most notable one: "Developers, developers, developers!"

Re: An interactive map of Flock Cams

#119

Post by Arubis » Wed, Mar 04, 2026, 9:59 PM UTC

A potentially nice addition to this map would be your closest hardware, paint, craft store, or other spray paint dealership.

Re: An interactive map of Flock Cams

#120

Post by tonymet » Wed, Mar 04, 2026, 9:59 PM UTC

Ajedi32 wrote: post #64

tonymet wrote: post #37

I volunteer for my city & county , and I'm a privacy advocate, so I have an ambivalent opinion on Flock cameras. Given the completely untenable demands on law enforcement, and extreme driver recklessness , the only practical way to enforce law and order with drivers is some sort of automated surveillance. Since covid, driver recklessness has been out of control. Running reds, extreme speed, escaping police are all co…

Could be wrong but I don't think Flock makes speed trap or red light cameras. These are license plate readers that conduct constant surveillance of everyone at all times, whether or not you've broken any traffic laws.

plate reading allows police to identify known and unknown suspects. For known suspects (e.g. police have PC, suspect fled), plate reader can help find the suspect without high speed pursuit. For unknown suspect (e.g. citizen report of street racing), plate readers can develop a suspect pool and narrow down candidate suspects for further investigation.