6 ms·
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 US
by loteck 5mo ago
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 searches on the audit log are now completely serialized, anonymized. This "improvement" came after 2025 turned out several cases of police stalking using Flock.
- tfrancisl 5mo agoI 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...
- wahnfrieden 5mo agoYC 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."
- echelon 5mo agoCameras 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.
- malfist 5mo agoPray tell, what speech do cameras make?
- throwawaytea 5mo agoThe 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.
- malfist 5mo agoI'm still not hearing any speech from the camera doing the recording. Can you tell me specifically, how recording with a camera is speech?
- mrala 5mo agoWhat is your definition of speech? It seems like you are defining it literally.
- greyface- 5mo agoACLU of IL v. Alvarez (2012): "The act of making an audio or audiovisual recording is necessarily included within the First Amendment’s guarantee of speech and press rights as a corollary of the right to disseminate the resulting recording."
- echelon 5mo agoMy recording of police interactions is free speech, for example. My recording my property is free speech. My taking a camera into public spaces and recording is free speech.
- roncinephile 5mo agothis is reminding me of the dearly departed website and news outlet Photography Is Not a Crime. Carlos Miller a name worth remembering.
- hypeatei 5mo ago> I would hope Flock is subject to FOIA Isn't FOIA only applicable to federal government agencies?
- mrhottakes 5mo agoFOIA does not apply outside government entities. Maybe you can get the data from the entity itself, but good luck.
- gwerbin 5mo agoWhich is one of many reasons why privatizing government services probably isn't a good idea. You could also make different laws but that's probably not going to happen. Think about just about any of the important laws that we rely on for a stable and just society in the USA, and consider that most or all of them would be politically unviable if they didn't already exist. Including FOIA itself. Not a good situation.
- greyface- 5mo agoWashington State just exempted Flock data from its public records law. https://app.leg.wa.gov/billsummary?billnumber=6002&year=2025&initiative=False https://app.leg.wa.gov/billsummary?billnumber=6002&year=2025...
- functionmouse 5mo agothat's craaazy
- rationalist 5mo agoCan you FOIA some unique identifier of the officers (badge number, name, etc) associated with the serialized searches?
- lenerdenator 5mo agoOn 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.
- echelon 5mo agoAre you suggesting that they might be targets for stealing copper?
- lenerdenator 5mo agoWhat? No. What would you do with stolen copper, anyways? Drive down to the junkyard off Manchester Trafficway in South KCMO and tell the guy working there that you "collected it from a demolition site at the behest of the foreman" and get paid $3.23 a pound for it? Why would someone ever do that?
- RobRivera 5mo agoLmao, anonymization of usage
- stackghost 5mo agoTwo 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.