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Flock-Powered Police Chiefs Stalking Women Shows Why Warrants Are Needed

375 pointsby jhonovichyesterday at 7:13 PM142 commentsview on HN

Comments

alexpotatotoday at 1:48 AM

Scott Adams' had a great line:

"Whenever people have the opportunity to commit fraud and there is no monitoring, you can assume they are committing fraud."

nkriscyesterday at 11:43 PM

> He characterizes the behavior as rare. He simultaneously identifies it as the most common form of abuse. The tension between those two statements is the problem Flock has left unaddressed.

I don’t see how there’s any tension between these statements. The overall occurrence of abuse can be rare while the most common form of the abuse that does occur is of officers tracking people they know.

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gattryesterday at 10:00 PM

Remember that scene from "Men in Black" where K watches surveillance video feed of his ex? In the movie it was meant to be wistful and cute, I guess. Now that such systems are getting closer to reality, you realize the potential for abuse in enormous.

arjieyesterday at 9:50 PM

Ultimately, there’s a sort of homeostasis in people’s tolerance for crime. If you need video evidence for prosecution, those who want it prosecuted will produce video cameras. If you make warrants impossible to produce in a timely manner, the camera search will be warrant exempted.

Attempts to damage state power to ensure crime isn’t prosecuted will be likely met with methods that are immune to them.

Given the constraints we operate under, the ideal number of unsolved crimes is not zero and the ideal number of crimes committed using state apparatus is also not zero. So being informed that either is non-zero is not of use to decision making in my opinion.

Avshalomyesterday at 9:17 PM

>>Flock and law enforcement regularly cite documented cases where LPR helped solve violent crimes, recover stolen vehicles, and locate missing persons. Those outcomes are real.

My opposition wouldn't change regardless but are those outcomes real?

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willis936yesterday at 8:49 PM

Check your town's website for correspondence with your state's chapter of the ACLU in regards to Flock cameras. If your police chief (not an elected official) is installing them then contact your local ACLU chapter about it. These are 4th amendment violations.

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throwaway74628yesterday at 10:44 PM

Nit: the police chief was also stalking and harassing at least one man

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qmryesterday at 9:15 PM

So glad we got them kicked out of Mountain View.

connort459yesterday at 10:21 PM

The fact police can go in and just look at camera footage without warrant proves your point precisely, officers have used it to stalk family members, etc.

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Jzushtoday at 1:02 AM

Not sure how much warrants are going to help when a judge will see a stack of requests from a police chief and just rubber stamp them all without looking. This is already a problem in places where warrants are required.

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throwaway85825yesterday at 9:17 PM

When flock data was FOIAd the state just exempted the data from FOIA.

normalaccesstoday at 12:06 AM

"If you give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest of men, I will find something in them which will hang him." -- Cardinal Richelieu

Privacy protects personal dignity, not just illicit behavior. We close bathroom doors, keep journals, and have intimate conversations not because we are breaking the law, but because we value personal modesty and boundaries.

We are quickly approaching a time when we are all guilty until proven innocent by voyeuristic power-hungry psychopathic megalomaniacs who cry the old cry of "If you've got nothing to hide, you've got nothing to fear"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nothing_to_hide_argument

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chilling_effect

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nullctoday at 2:00 AM

No it shows why mass surveillance systems should be outlawed.

largbaeyesterday at 11:20 PM

Yes this is how freedoms are restored. Next we need a story of flock tracking a reporter or political figure. Put that 4th amendment into sharp focus.

rose-knuckle17yesterday at 11:59 PM

Imagine what Musk can do with all the SSA and Tax data he stole in the most blatant and underreported data heist in history.

TZubiritoday at 12:49 AM

Big fan of court ordered warrants as a way to limit law enforcement here.

That said, warrants protect law enforcement like searching someone's house. It seems that some less intrusive powers like running someone's plate has been given to the police with lower controls.

And it makes sense right? If every judge needed to approve every potential plate check, it might be too much for daily operations.

So option A, push towards everything being protected under warrants.

Sure, option B, how about protection mechanisms that sit somewhere in the middle? For example, what if some powers were audited (sounds like they are logged already) on a probabilistic basis. What if judges could inspect some fraction of searches after the fact, and ask for justification afterwards. Of course this would have no effect on the actual search, but it would have long term effects on future searches.

Even if 1% of lesser searches are audited, I'm sure most policemen would be much more weary about using them for personal matters like stalking women.

aussieguy1234today at 12:31 AM

Statistically, police officers are much more likely than your average person to be a perpetrator of domestic abuse

josefritzishereyesterday at 8:38 PM

As far as I can tell from the news, Flock is only used to commit crimes.

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xnxyesterday at 10:52 PM

This problem is 99% cops and 1% flock.

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kittikittiyesterday at 10:45 PM

Random people at your workplace likely know others with access and use it to spy on their own coworkers. I know of cases where they report the smallest details to Human Resources.

gigel82yesterday at 10:00 PM

Can I set up my own camera on the side of the road (in a public place) to scan people's faces and license plates, link them up to one of the many data brokers (or leaks) and use a big display to show the drivers' pictures and something like "Hey Rick Larsen, it's the 24th time we've seen you this week. We'll let our clients know there's no one home at 2930 Wetmore Avenue, Everett most weekdays between 8 and 4!", and then place them somewhere like oh, I don't know, in close proximity to a capitol building?

We can pay the regular fees that advertisers pay to have billboards up.

And if we're not allowed to do that, why is Flock?

npuntyesterday at 9:28 PM

> Important subject

> Uses slop AI art

Fastest way to make something into a farce.

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cdrnsfyesterday at 9:22 PM

Regular reminder that their CEO called Deflock a terrorist organization. I hope they go out of business and their cameras end up as e-waste.

testertester00yesterday at 9:36 PM

[dead]

darigyesterday at 8:11 PM

[dead]

richwateryesterday at 9:17 PM

acab