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Across the US, people are dismantling and destroying Flock surveillance cameras

bloodinthemachine.com

121–130 of 321 posts

Re: Across the US, people are dismantling and destroying Flock surveillance cameras

#121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is the market growing for stolen surveillance cameras in Brazil?

Because they're easy to steal.

That's honestly kinda beautiful. If they want more useful/advanced cameras, it just makes them more worth stealing

Re: Across the US, people are dismantling and destroying Flock surveillance cameras

#122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you are accusing me of virtue signalling without discussing the evidence. this in itself is a virtue signal. I'm not trying to insult you by saying this ... you are behaving hypocritically. lots of people don't treat that gently, I genuinely suggest you be careful towards whom you act that way. if you have an actual point I'm happy to chat about it, however my tolerance of snippy snappy rhetoric is running low

Nah man I’m going to continue to proudly call out people who skirt the line of racism by advocating for the same policies that racists have championed since the fall of the Confederacy. Say it with your chest next time, there’s a reason that it’s not tolerated in polite company. I guess maybe some of YCombinator would enjoy it though, judging by their investments and the rhetoric of those they are associated with.

it sounds to me like you would prefer moral grandstanding about north american politics instead of sharing discussion. not interested, thanks for the opportunity to practice my patience

Re: Across the US, people are dismantling and destroying Flock surveillance cameras

#123

Speed cameras next. Just another privacy violating device that is also a revenue source for irresponsible local leaders.

Hmm your comment made me curious so I looked into it. I guess the error rates are so incredibly high it seems likely they aren't "errors" at all.

https://reason.com/2022/02/03/unreliable-speed-cameras-line-...

> In Chicago, where speed cameras are abundant, the camera program improperly gave out over $2.4 million in fines from 2013 to 2015. Using a random sample analysis, the Chicago Tribune estimated the number of bad tickets to be somewhere around 110,000. The erroneous fines were issued in areas without proper speed limit signs or during times when the cameras should have been turned off. (Cameras near parks and schools operate within a specific timeframe.) The Chicago Tribune found that over half the cameras in use were giving out faulty speeding tickets.

> Unsurprisingly, the misuse of speed cameras has also become a massive source of revenue for local government. In Chicago, 300 of the city's speed cameras would bring in about $15 million each year.

> In March, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot lowered the speed limit threshold for speed cameras to trigger a citation. Cameras now trigger when a driver goes over the limit by 6 miles per hour, rather than 10 miles per hour, the previous threshold.

I think we need to make it easier for people to fight back against automatic tickets like this. The onus should be on the state not the individual. And individuals should still be entitled to their data

Re: Across the US, people are dismantling and destroying Flock surveillance cameras

#124
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The camera doesn't have a 360 field of vision, besides COVID masks aren't uncommon now.

If you want to hit the lens with the paintball gun, wouldn't you need to be in its field of vision?

The wind could curve the ball around slightly.

Re: Across the US, people are dismantling and destroying Flock surveillance cameras

#125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What evidence to the contrary? 1% of the US population does commit over 60% of violent crime: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3969807/

That’s not what I’m disputing, of course. I’m disputing that the grandparent’s assertion that if we (by your stats) simply lock up 1% of the population that violent crime would drop by 60%. I mean, trivially, using our brains for a nanosecond, what if that 1% of the population is almost always 16-18 year olds when they commit those violent crimes. The 16-18 demographic is roughly 4% of the US population (Google). Tha…

Don't jail criminals because maybe they're young, that's your argument? Sounds like a something that's already part of the sentencing policy, leniency of first time offenders.

Re: Across the US, people are dismantling and destroying Flock surveillance cameras

#126

[flagged]

I personally wouldn't want police to have access to Flock's data unless they have a warrant to follow the movements of a specific individual. If private organizations and citizens had at-will access to this kind of data it would be worse than a panopticon. It'd be a prison where every inmate is under constant surveillance, not just by guards, but by other inmates. There would be criminals using this data to track down and harass judges. Burglers using it to find empty homes. Rapists using it to track down victims. You name it.

Surveillance systems are, normally, a trade-off between privacy and safety. You lose one but gain the other. The reason Flock cameras are being torn down now is because they take away privacy while simultaneously reducing safety.

Re: Across the US, people are dismantling and destroying Flock surveillance cameras

#127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Drones with a paintball gun attached? Realistically that’s going to attract a lot of negative attention.

The use of a drone also ups the ante from a prosecutor’s perspective. Charging a vandal caught with a paintbrush and a ladder is nothing out of the ordinary. A routine misdemeanor. Someone who has the wherewithal to jerry rig a paintball gun to a drone is someone scary . Plus, any officer who witnesses such a drone is almost certainly going to misidentify the paintball gun as an actual gun. I can imagine the operator…

Yeah like we gotta be serious here, US cops and courts are out to screw people over because that is how they increase their budget, pay, and bonuses. If they think they can twist some law into giving you a felony, they will, regardless of the spirit of the law.

Attaching any kind of potential weapon on a drone has no real precedent so they can dig through 19th century law and combine it with some 21st century law and punishment and screw your life over with bull crap unless you got $100K+ sitting around to throw on a good lawyer. The risk of being caught may be a bit lower, but the potential punishment if caught could be absolutely enormous.

Re: Across the US, people are dismantling and destroying Flock surveillance cameras

#128

I'm surprised the flock cameras aren't being disabled in a more subtle fashion. All it takes is a tiny drone with a stick attached, and at the end of that stick is a tiny sponge soaked with tempera paint. Drone goes 'boop' on the camera lens, and the entire system is disabled until an expensive technician drives out with a ladder and cleans the lens at non-trivial expense. A handful of enterprising activists could bl…

The should disable them all in an area and pile them on a platter in a public space. Like a CiCi's takeover.

Re: Across the US, people are dismantling and destroying Flock surveillance cameras

#129
post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This will never be a thing in America. Good luck putting the camera on a pole higher than a redneck can shoot a rifle.

Sounds like a new remit for the NRO. Park a billion dollar satellite over an area to keep an eye out for petty vandalism. Then the sheriffs office can team up with Space Force: papers will be served immediately by LEO MIRV deployment, which may also count as execution depending on visibility and aim on the day. /s - but it wouldn't surprise me at the rate things are going.

https://www.wsfa.com/2026/02/07/police-use-drone-technology-...

Re: Across the US, people are dismantling and destroying Flock surveillance cameras

#130
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oof, I really hate this automated enforcement. Might be time to get a paintball gun.

Tbh an overpowered laser off alibaba probably works a lot better at longer range

A paintball gun might not invoke the federal government to hunt you down; an over-powered laser absolutely will. The FAA has a very low tolerance for that sort of thing. Do not ever, ever, ever use lasers in open air that are capable of damaging the human retina without the appropriate licenses. The last thing cities need right now is another federal agency going on a witchhunt. Firing eye-damaging lasers into the air would just serve them that excuse on a silvered platter.
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