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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

#61

Post by CobrastanJorji »

giraffe_lady wrote: post #60

I've mentioned this before but I've been a volunteer court watcher for domestic violence court for some years now. Cases where a state surveillance tool or database was used to stalk or harass the victim are completely routine. Very often it is someone in an administrative role who has access to the tool, and I think they get caught more often because it's easier for automated audits to flag their use as clearly unne…

Can you tell me more about what a volunteer court watcher does? That sounds fascinating. What do you do when you see something questionable in a court? Are there broader organizations you raise concerns with or submit statistics to?

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

#63

Post by skeaker »

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?

I feel like this actually isn't that complicated. Just remove any special protections that they get on the judicial end. The judicial is already there with the intention of balancing the powers of the executive, it just doesn't do that currently because they limply decided that the executive can go and do whatever the hell they please.

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

#64

Post by komali2 »

malcolmgreaves wrote: post #37
infecto wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have always gravitated towards a market model. Force police, like doctors, to have malpractice insurance. Let for-profit insurance companies model what that risk looks like. Now cities have to make a financial decision when hiring cops that is directionally accurate to the risk of said cop. Imperfect but I don’t believe perfect systems exist. But this goes back to government agencies never thinking about budgets. M…

Absolutely! This would also mean when cops break the law taxpayers don't pay out. Their privately held insurance does. Enough bad behavior and a criminal cop becomes uninsurable. This also prevents the abuse where a criminal cop gets fired, then moved over to another jurisdiction to repeat the process all over again. The insurance companies should have to share history with one another. Perhaps the only tweak would b…

> but not so much that their greed creates an even worse system.

The market model won't work because greed isn't real when discussing corporations. That's like calling a tree growing towards the sun "greedy." No, the tree is fulfilling it's biological imperative: put more leaves closer to the sun.

Corporations must maximize profit. The corporation that maximizes profit best is the one that can consume other ones and tend towards monopoly, the perfect state. All actions are permitted when fulfilling biological imperative.

So, trying to fenangle a market based solution to police brutality issues will result in a couple predetermined outcomes: insurance payouts won't happen because why would they voluntarily pay, furthermore, cop insurance companies would leverage their superior capital to lobby the government to protect their profit margins, which individuals can't prevent through market efforts or individual actions since the corporation's power is so much greater.

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

#65

Post by bluGill »

bdangubic wrote: post #46
waynecochran wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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

It is a given that any power will be abused. However not giving power out is often worse that the abuse of power.

The real question is what do we do to detect and prevent that abuse so it is minimized. All too often people are "this person is mostly on my side so I will overlook their abuse" which is the wrong answer.

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

#66

Post by lenerdenator »

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…

On the subject of those Flock cameras, it really is amazing how much high-purity copper they manage to put in one of those. They might as well be putting ingots of copper on those poles.

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

#67

Post by echelon »

wahnfrieden wrote: post #24
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...

YC CEO funded Flock and is involved in politics to remove police regulations To quote him responding to criticism against Flock: "You're thinking Chinese surveillance. US-based surveillance helps victims and prevents more victims."

Cameras are free speech and are a shield against property crimes and assault.

Our building complex has rampant break-ins. We've needed more cameras for years and we're only now starting to add them.

Worse, someone recently someone set fire to the roof which caused a 12-hour long debacle. Not sure what the "#-of-alarms fire" ranking it was, but several people lost their homes to months of remediation and they tore apart the roof.

Cameras would have implicated the contractor responsible (we know it was a contractor, but there were no cameras or access logs).

One theory as to why the number of violent crimes is going down in this country isn't that we just de-leaded the water and taught better conflict de-escalation, but that there are cameras and smartphones everywhere.

All of that said - camera networks in the hands of an all-powerful state are bad.

The state does not need access to these systems outside of a rigorously documented system with proper judicial oversight. We need regulations and even civil liberties that limit the scope of state access and state dragnets to these camera networks.

But individuals, companies, and communities should be at liberty to hire surveillance tech to protect their persons and their property.

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

#68

Post by RobRivera »

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…

Lmao, anonymization of usage

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

#69

Post by rounce »

randusername wrote: post #11

This man alleges Flock employees show up in the logs snooping in on private business feeds for pools, gymnastics studios, etc. https://substack.com/home/post/p-193593234 If you build it they will come.

Worth noting that these weren't low level employees watching the children's gymnastics areas but included the accounts of the Director of Growth, and the VP of Strategic Relations and Business Development among several other staff members. You really have to wonder what these people mean when they say "think of the children".

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

#70

Post by echelon »

lenerdenator wrote: post #66
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…

On the subject of those Flock cameras, it really is amazing how much high-purity copper they manage to put in one of those. They might as well be putting ingots of copper on those poles.

Are you suggesting that they might be targets for stealing copper?
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