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Flock license plate reader wrongly linked a San Diego man to a violent crime

timesofsandiego.com

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Re: Flock license plate reader wrongly linked a San Diego man to a violent crime

#31

Post by turtlesdown11 »

tptacek wrote: post #6

This doesn't seem like a Flock story so much as SDPD making an arrest purely on a nexus to "red Alfa Romeo with tinted windows". From what I understand of the story, the Flock camera did in fact tag a red Alfa Romeo (there's a still frame in the article). It wasn't the right one, but ALPR cameras aren't psychic; they tell you features, make/model, and plate, not "criminal culpability".

right, its the cops who decide "criminal culpability" all Flock did was lead them to the wrong person...poor innocent Flock

Re: Flock license plate reader wrongly linked a San Diego man to a violent crime

#32

Post by turtlesdown11 »

variety8675 wrote: post #2

I'm no fan of flock, but I dislike how these articles are blaming the technology when the real issue is the police not bothering to check the information they're given

A tool that requires perfect human oversight to avoid harming innocent people is a problem

Re: Flock license plate reader wrongly linked a San Diego man to a violent crime

#33

Post by pksebben »

OutOfHere wrote: post #30
pixl97 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So they can't show it to the police in the US?

Every police officer with access to the system must ideally have to undergo mandatory annual training and testing in using it to protect the rights of innocents. If they don't pass the testing, they ideally should not be granted access. Flock should be held accountable for ensuring adequate protections exist to prevent misuse.

It's not a training problem, it's an incentive problem. You put these guys in a structure that requires them to justify their jobs at minimal cost of effort and then ooh ack surprise when they don't take the proper care to ensure that they're not stepping on innocent people in the pursuit of a healthy career.

Couple that with overburdening them with petty nonsense all the time and training them in military equipment and tactics and like it doesn't matter what tools you give them, those tools will be abused at convenience.

The issue is structural, not technical, but power tools = more damage per capita.

Re: Flock license plate reader wrongly linked a San Diego man to a violent crime

#34

Post by dlcarrier »

variety8675 wrote: post #2

I'm no fan of flock, but I dislike how these articles are blaming the technology when the real issue is the police not bothering to check the information they're given

Ironically, they're showing a situation where more tracking makes innocence clear. There's countless examples of innocent people being caught in a dragnet, based on data that correlates with but does not prove guilt, where more data collection leads to more innocent people suffering. That's what they should be focusing on.

Re: Flock license plate reader wrongly linked a San Diego man to a violent crime

#35

Post by pksebben »

throwaway87557 wrote: post #26
4MOAisgoodenuf wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t think someone should be thrown in jail for a month for having polarized windows on their car. Red is a very popular color for the Giulia and window tint is not an uncommon item. Any random person on the street could be described as able to be “caught without enough evidence to convict”

.

Dumb astroturf grok bot is dumb. Don't feed the trolls.

Re: Flock license plate reader wrongly linked a San Diego man to a violent crime

#36

Post by OutOfHere »

pksebben wrote: post #33
OutOfHere wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every police officer with access to the system must ideally have to undergo mandatory annual training and testing in using it to protect the rights of innocents. If they don't pass the testing, they ideally should not be granted access. Flock should be held accountable for ensuring adequate protections exist to prevent misuse.

It's not a training problem, it's an incentive problem. You put these guys in a structure that requires them to justify their jobs at minimal cost of effort and then ooh ack surprise when they don't take the proper care to ensure that they're not stepping on innocent people in the pursuit of a healthy career. Couple that with overburdening them with petty nonsense all the time and training them in military equipment…

It's not a dichotomy. "Checks and balances" are a thing since the founding of the United States. If the local government fails to institute them, it should be the complementary responsibility of the vendor to have them. In their absence, lawsuits targeting all parties are highly desirable.

Re: Flock license plate reader wrongly linked a San Diego man to a violent crime

#37

Post by FireBeyond »

variety8675 wrote: post #2

I'm no fan of flock, but I dislike how these articles are blaming the technology when the real issue is the police not bothering to check the information they're given

There is absolutely that, but the CEO of Flock has said he believes a false-positive is better than a false-negative, so everything around the stack pushes police that way, too.

I love these elites who say "Yeah, it's no big deal, the police will arrest you but they'll figure it out and you can go on your way, and if you have to spend a couple of nights in jail first, or hire an attorney at considerable expense, or you lose your job or become less hirable because your state reports arrest records, not just charge or conviction records, well, that's a small price to pay for Zero Crime State, presented by Flock(TM)!"

Re: Flock license plate reader wrongly linked a San Diego man to a violent crime

#40

Post by tptacek »

turtlesdown11 wrote: post #31
tptacek wrote: post #6

This doesn't seem like a Flock story so much as SDPD making an arrest purely on a nexus to "red Alfa Romeo with tinted windows". From what I understand of the story, the Flock camera did in fact tag a red Alfa Romeo (there's a still frame in the article). It wasn't the right one, but ALPR cameras aren't psychic; they tell you features, make/model, and plate, not "criminal culpability".

right, its the cops who decide "criminal culpability" all Flock did was lead them to the wrong person...poor innocent Flock

It didn't lead SDPD to any person at all. It led them to a red Alfa Romeo with tinted windows.

Flock doesn't do facial recognition. It's a real-time search engine for cars on video feeds.

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