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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

#71

Post by malfist »

echelon wrote: post #67
wahnfrieden wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 apa…

Pray tell, what speech do cameras make?

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

#72

Post by giraffe_lady »

CobrastanJorji wrote: post #61
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?

I volunteer for a local organization, most areas have one. Some are specialized around a specific kind of court, others are big enough to be broad and then have specialized training, usually following however your local jurisdiction divides up its courts.

I fill out a form for each session and case and write descriptive notes about what happens in court, including things like language and tone of the judge, conduct of the counsel, etc. I don't evaluate "questionable" myself and I do nothing personally with the notes. They are submitted to the organization and eventually in aggregate make their way into data used by researchers, journalists, law schools, legislators.

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

#73

Post by stackghost »

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…

Two independent studies established that police families experience higher rates of domestic violence than the rest of the population.

Do not let your loved ones get romantically involved with cops.

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

#74

Post by throwawaytea »

malfist wrote: post #71
echelon wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 apa…

Pray tell, what speech do cameras make?

The same one that I make when I stand somewhere and describe what I see. So I hold a camera to do it more accurately. And then I get tired so I mount the camera on a trip setup instead.

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

#75

Post by hk1337 »

xboxnolifes wrote: post #45
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.

Of course it does, it says "Police have used license plate readers..." not "Police officers have used license plate readers..." or indicated that individual officers have abused their authority.

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

#76

Post by CobrastanJorji »

giraffe_lady wrote: post #72
CobrastanJorji wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

I volunteer for a local organization, most areas have one. Some are specialized around a specific kind of court, others are big enough to be broad and then have specialized training, usually following however your local jurisdiction divides up its courts. I fill out a form for each session and case and write descriptive notes about what happens in court, including things like language and tone of the judge, conduct o…

That's super cool, thanks for the information and also thanks for doing that!

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

#78

Post by tfrancisl »

echelon wrote: post #67
wahnfrieden wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 apa…

I think this is a false dichotomy. You can feel and be more protected against crime while also being exploited for your data by a shadowy camera company. We should let the state step in to regulate Flock et al, assuming we can do something about the corruption they're already involved in.

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

#79

Post by hk1337 »

wahnfrieden wrote: post #31
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 classic "just some bad apples" argument in defense of corruption. In Toronto, police are pressured into gang-like conformity to support their bad apples - from last week: > A Crown attorney is being accused of suggesting a police witness should have provided false evidence while testifying in court. > According to the Toronto Star, a heated interaction occurred in the hallway of a Toronto courthouse earlier this…

> The classic "just some bad apples" argument in defense of corruption.

Not really, something definitely should be done to correct it but some people have this notion that throwing out the baby with the bath water is and starting over from scratch is the correct action. If anything that will just create new problems and make the ability to hide misdeeds even easier.

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

#80

Post by greyface- »

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...

Washington State just exempted Flock data from its public records law. https://app.leg.wa.gov/billsummary?billnumber=6002&year=2025...
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