Concerns are being raised about a tech company that’s providing nationwide surveillance for law enforcement.
Known as Flock Safety and based out of Atlanta, the company is a private operation that “grants law enforcement the ability to seamlessly tap into a nationwide network of cameras — tens of thousands of unblinking eyes — that gather data around the clock without most of us even realizing it,” according to The News & Observer.
Below is an example of one of their inconspicuous cameras:
I saw someone with an unmarked van installing cameras in my neighborhood this week.
The cameras blend in until you spot the first one.
After that, you can’t un-see the top-heavy black poles everywhere.
And so I went down a rabbit hole… pic.twitter.com/2eyCPsyCKB
— Eric Fiedler (@e_fiedler) May 1, 2024
The cameras are mounted on poles about 10 feet tall with a small solar panel at the top. Some poles have additional hardware attached. There’s a logo on the front of the camera that looks like a small branch. A quick online search led me to a company called @Flock_Safety.
— Eric Fiedler (@e_fiedler) May 1, 2024
The company has achieved this by basically installing its inconspicuous cameras EVERYWHERE. In North Carolina, for example, Flock Safety has installed 700 cameras. Meanwhile, the company reportedly boasts cameras in 4,000+ communities nationally.
Flock Safety has, for its part, defended its massive surveillance operation by claiming its cameras have solved 10 percent of America’s reported crimes. The problem, critics say, is that a bunch of innocent people are also getting caught up in this.
“Nationwide, Flock cameras routinely capture tens of millions of vehicles over each 30-day period, the company’s default length of time for keeping data,” the News & Observer notes. “Only a small percentage of those vehicles — less than 1% — are linked to wanted suspects, missing persons or auto thefts, company data shows.”
Critics say this is too much power in too few people’s hands.
“Police departments have never had the ability to look at the history of movements of a vehicle all around the country,” Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst at the American Civil Liberties Union, said. “That’s a very significant power for anybody to have — including police.”
It doesn’t help that the authorities refuse to reveal where they’ve placed Flock’s cameras and license plate readers and have been “tight-lipped” about transparency and accountability.
“Street by street, those cameras add up. And when they connect, privacy advocates say, they create a privately owned surveillance apparatus that rivals any the country has ever seen — accessible to even the smallest cities and towns,” according to the News & Observer.
There’s also the price factor. Flock’s cameras cost $2,ooo to $3,000 per camera. That means in North Carolina, taxpayers are having to fork over $1.4 million annually for the state’s 700 cameras.
Flock Safety is a tech company based in Atlanta that sells surveillance equipment and software. Everything from automatic license plate readers to gunshot detectors and “fully integrated [software] that detects, decodes, and delivers evidence …”
— Eric Fiedler (@e_fiedler) May 1, 2024
Their customers include schools, businesses, and home owner associations.
However, their single largest customer is law enforcement, and their most prolific product is the automatic license plate reader. pic.twitter.com/8RuMaIZwJ8
— Eric Fiedler (@e_fiedler) May 1, 2024
The way the cameras work is that they silently capture images of every automobile that passes by.
“From those images, algorithms attempt to figure out the license plate number, vehicle make, type, color — even details like the presence of roof racks and bumper stickers,” the News & Observer notes.
Using the license plate number, the system then compares it to the numbers in the National Crime Information Center and other databases so as to determine if the car is stolen, the drivers have warrants, etc.
All this information is also placed into a searchable database for the sake of law enforcement.
According to Raleigh Police Capt. Matthew Frey, this data has been extremely useful for solving crimes. To understand why, just imagine a white Honda is spotted leaving the scene of a crime.
“There’s tons of white Hondas out there, but if you can look at the Flock camera during that time frame when that vehicle would have passed by that camera and you find a white Honda, that gives you at least a lead to jump on,” Frey noted. “Before, you just had one in a sea of white Hondas.”
Although I’m a simple real estate guy, I understand there is no expectation of privacy in a public setting.
An interesting aspect comes into play when there’s a network large enough to track your every move. Especially when a small fraction of license plates are linked to crime. pic.twitter.com/7hNVp5Io9T
— Eric Fiedler (@e_fiedler) May 1, 2024
However, critics say that the long-term storage of this data is problematic.
“It is just functioning as a giant dragnet capturing data on everyone without the idea of there being any kind of crime,” Dave Maass of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit advocacy group for digital civil rights, said.
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Author: Vivek Saxena
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