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Police Have Used License Plate Readers at Least 14x to Stalk Romantic Interests

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Re: Police Have Used License Plate Readers at Least 14x to Stalk Romantic Interests

#41

Post by infecto »

anonymars wrote: post #38
infecto wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Instead of being hyperbolic why don’t you share your idea then? Markets are not perfect but on average they do a decent job of finding equilibrium. “Democracy is the worst form of government—except for all the others that have been tried.”

I'll join in to proffer that where they lack, it's often exactly the sort of thing you describe: some externality is missing in the price

Agree but better than the system we have today. There will always be issues with it but I think on average it would better incentivize hiring lower risk employees.

Re: Police Have Used License Plate Readers at Least 14x to Stalk Romantic Interests

#42

Post by waynecochran »

JohnMakin wrote: post #2

"at least" is doing a lot of work here. That's just what was analyzed. You have to assume the behavior is much more prevalent.

"14x times" to me sounds like statistically "zero" since I assume the sample size would be in the millions "at least."

Re: Police Have Used License Plate Readers at Least 14x to Stalk Romantic Interests

#43

Post by sidewndr46 »

virgil_disgr4ce wrote: post #10

Is there a framework—any framework, however hypothetical—that actually makes police accountable and subject to the laws they supposedly enforce?

there's never been a point human history where the ruling class was subject to its rules. so no.

Re: Police Have Used License Plate Readers at Least 14x to Stalk Romantic Interests

#44

Post by cucumber3732842 »

parineum wrote: post #32
virgil_disgr4ce wrote: post #10

Is there a framework—any framework, however hypothetical—that actually makes police accountable and subject to the laws they supposedly enforce?

This is pretty straightforward actually. The third party doctrine [1] has been extrapolated to the digital age to the massive detriment of privacy. All it takes is for Congress to pass a law clarifying to the courts that the third party doctrine isn't correct. There's also an alteration to the interpretation of "reasonable expectation of privacy" that could be made (again, by Congress) to account for the total sum of…

A storage locker or bank deposit box is private property even if it's effectively held by a 3rd party.

There's no reason the same doctrine couldn't extend to digital papers and effects.

Re: Police Have Used License Plate Readers at Least 14x to Stalk Romantic Interests

#45

Post by xboxnolifes »

hk1337 wrote: post #12

I wouldn't say I am a huge proponent of Flock, especially considering their lack luster security for the individual cameras at least in my area, but the title makes it sound like it's an institutional procedure that the department stalking their romantic interests instead of individual officers that need to be properly reprimanded.

The title doesn't make that sound like that at all. Unless you think in any world there woukd be able institutional procedure to abuse systems like that. To normal people it reads like police abusing the systems they have access to.

Re: Police Have Used License Plate Readers at Least 14x to Stalk Romantic Interests

#46

Post by bdangubic »

waynecochran wrote: post #42
JohnMakin wrote: post #2

"at least" is doing a lot of work here. That's just what was analyzed. You have to assume the behavior is much more prevalent.

"14x times" to me sounds like statistically "zero" since I assume the sample size would be in the millions "at least."

if 1 of those 14 was your daughter, wife, sister, mom you would not be writing this. 14x is exactly 14x too many

Re: Police Have Used License Plate Readers at Least 14x to Stalk Romantic Interests

#48

Post by hypeatei »

tfrancisl wrote: post #7
loteck wrote: post #5

In my town, we have Flock. I request the audit logs that show how police are searching the Flock system. In November 2025 and prior, the logs were listed by USERID and I could independently correlate quantity of searches by USERID to detect unusual search behavior. This same methodology has been used to catch police stalking in at least one other city. In December 2025, Flock decided to "improve" its system. All sear…

I would guess the only way to make this data available long term is by regulation. Then again, I would hope Flock is subject to FOIA already if they are collaborating with state or local law enforcement...

> I would hope Flock is subject to FOIA

Isn't FOIA only applicable to federal government agencies?

Re: Police Have Used License Plate Readers at Least 14x to Stalk Romantic Interests

#49

Post by Spooky23 »

hypeatei wrote: post #48
tfrancisl wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would guess the only way to make this data available long term is by regulation. Then again, I would hope Flock is subject to FOIA already if they are collaborating with state or local law enforcement...

> I would hope Flock is subject to FOIA Isn't FOIA only applicable to federal government agencies?

Most states have a version of it.

Re: Police Have Used License Plate Readers at Least 14x to Stalk Romantic Interests

#50

Post by rationalist »

loteck wrote: post #5

In my town, we have Flock. I request the audit logs that show how police are searching the Flock system. In November 2025 and prior, the logs were listed by USERID and I could independently correlate quantity of searches by USERID to detect unusual search behavior. This same methodology has been used to catch police stalking in at least one other city. In December 2025, Flock decided to "improve" its system. All sear…

Can you FOIA some unique identifier of the officers (badge number, name, etc) associated with the serialized searches?
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