8 ms·

There are multiple cases of people being falsely imprisoned because police believed Flock over actual evidence. In each case Flock was wrong.

tptacek 28d ago
[flagged]
- ceejayoz 28d ago
  https://www.riaclu.org/news/flock-safety-image-led-to-false-arrest-aclu-urges-cumberland-cancel-contract/ https://www.riaclu.org/news/flock-safety-image-led-to-false-... https://reason.com/2026/08/13/flock-cameras-and-license-plate-readers-are-everywhere-can-we-trust-cops-with-them/ https://reason.com/2026/08/13/flock-cameras-and-license-plat... https://katv.com/news/local/sherwood-stop-sparked-after-flock-camera-misread-plate-by-one-letter-as-stolen-katv-news-share-inform-public-community-safety https://katv.com/news/local/sherwood-stop-sparked-after-floc... For the edit specifically: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/11/human-toll-alpr-errors https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/11/human-toll-alpr-errors > Turns out that the ALPR had misread a ‘3’ as a ‘7’ on Green’s license plate. But what is even more egregious is that none of the officers bothered to double-check the ALPR tip before acting on it.
  - tptacek 28d ago
    Thanks! Reading now.
    - tptacek 28d ago
      The third of these is exactly what I'm looking for: a case where a Flock camera was off by one letter, and mismatched a car as stolen when it wasn't. The driver wasn't arrested, but being stopped for a stolen vehicle is terrifying --- it happened several times where I live as well (due to stale Illinois LEADS entries). The first two don't seem like Flock issues at all. In the first, police used Flock cameras as they would have a closed-circuit camera. They got a vague look at the person driving a suspect car, and they got another lead on the owner of the car, tracked him down on Facebook, and picked out a person from his friends list that looked like the picture on the camera. In the second, there was a fatal hit-and-run accident involving a Dodge Durango; the police did a dragnet search for Dodges Durango and literally picked the first one they could find parked on the street. They then papered the case backwards to match it to the accident, claiming it had telltale damage (it did not). Both those cases are police malfeasance, to be sure. But they're not the police believing Flock against all other evidence; they're police essentially manufacturing evidence to clear a case.
      - slowin 28d ago
        How are they not Flock issues? If Flock cameras didn't exist, they wouldn't have happened. Flocks (and all other mass surveillance cameras) allow many parties to violate your rights and generally behave sociopathically. This is why people want them all removed.
        tptacek 28d ago
        If you want to make the argument that all cameras are problematic, I won't necessarily agree, but it's not the thing I'm asking about. One problem in these discussions is that it's virtually impossible to have a conversation or to explore the topic in any depth because every single comment on the thread is read purely as advocacy. I'm in some part responsible for getting the cameras pulled from my own municipality, as I've discussed many times here.
        Forgeties79 28d ago
        I believe you and your follow up comments to the one earlier seemed to point that direction, but there is a bit of a tone in your first comment that could reasonably be misconstrued as undue skepticism in favor of flock. I would just be mindful of how you talk about the subject, if you’re looking for feedback. If not, just ignore me I guess ha
        tptacek 28d ago
        I don't think this kind of metadiscussion is productive on these kinds of threads, sorry. Just a personal preference to avoid it as much as possible.
        Forgeties79 28d ago
        hey take it or leave it, no worries
        slowin 28d ago
        You actually started the meta discussion and they were just replying to you: > One problem in these discussions is that it's virtually impossible to have a conversation or to explore the topic in any depth because every single comment on the thread is read purely as advocacy. People "advocate" in these threads because we don't want to live under mass surveillance. This has already been discussed in depth in books like 1984.
- ofjcihen 28d ago
  I like that you told him what you wanted him to find to give to you so that you could read it. The point was his to prove I guess but I can’t help but wonder if you were actually interested in being convinced you wouldn’t have just taken the time to do a quick GPT/Google search.
hackernud3s 28d ago
Yes and in each case of people being correctly imprisoned, Flock was right. That's because it's a tautology.

tptacek 28d ago

[flagged]

ceejayoz 28d ago
https://www.riaclu.org/news/flock-safety-image-led-to-false-arrest-aclu-urges-cumberland-cancel-contract/ https://www.riaclu.org/news/flock-safety-image-led-to-false-... https://reason.com/2026/08/13/flock-cameras-and-license-plate-readers-are-everywhere-can-we-trust-cops-with-them/ https://reason.com/2026/08/13/flock-cameras-and-license-plat... https://katv.com/news/local/sherwood-stop-sparked-after-flock-camera-misread-plate-by-one-letter-as-stolen-katv-news-share-inform-public-community-safety https://katv.com/news/local/sherwood-stop-sparked-after-floc... For the edit specifically: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/11/human-toll-alpr-errors https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/11/human-toll-alpr-errors > Turns out that the ALPR had misread a ‘3’ as a ‘7’ on Green’s license plate. But what is even more egregious is that none of the officers bothered to double-check the ALPR tip before acting on it.
- tptacek 28d ago
  Thanks! Reading now.
  - tptacek 28d ago
    The third of these is exactly what I'm looking for: a case where a Flock camera was off by one letter, and mismatched a car as stolen when it wasn't. The driver wasn't arrested, but being stopped for a stolen vehicle is terrifying --- it happened several times where I live as well (due to stale Illinois LEADS entries). The first two don't seem like Flock issues at all. In the first, police used Flock cameras as they would have a closed-circuit camera. They got a vague look at the person driving a suspect car, and they got another lead on the owner of the car, tracked him down on Facebook, and picked out a person from his friends list that looked like the picture on the camera. In the second, there was a fatal hit-and-run accident involving a Dodge Durango; the police did a dragnet search for Dodges Durango and literally picked the first one they could find parked on the street. They then papered the case backwards to match it to the accident, claiming it had telltale damage (it did not). Both those cases are police malfeasance, to be sure. But they're not the police believing Flock against all other evidence; they're police essentially manufacturing evidence to clear a case.
    - slowin 28d ago
      How are they not Flock issues? If Flock cameras didn't exist, they wouldn't have happened. Flocks (and all other mass surveillance cameras) allow many parties to violate your rights and generally behave sociopathically. This is why people want them all removed.
      - tptacek 28d ago
        If you want to make the argument that all cameras are problematic, I won't necessarily agree, but it's not the thing I'm asking about. One problem in these discussions is that it's virtually impossible to have a conversation or to explore the topic in any depth because every single comment on the thread is read purely as advocacy. I'm in some part responsible for getting the cameras pulled from my own municipality, as I've discussed many times here.
        Forgeties79 28d ago
        I believe you and your follow up comments to the one earlier seemed to point that direction, but there is a bit of a tone in your first comment that could reasonably be misconstrued as undue skepticism in favor of flock. I would just be mindful of how you talk about the subject, if you’re looking for feedback. If not, just ignore me I guess ha
        tptacek 28d ago
        I don't think this kind of metadiscussion is productive on these kinds of threads, sorry. Just a personal preference to avoid it as much as possible.
        Forgeties79 28d ago
        hey take it or leave it, no worries
        slowin 28d ago
        You actually started the meta discussion and they were just replying to you: > One problem in these discussions is that it's virtually impossible to have a conversation or to explore the topic in any depth because every single comment on the thread is read purely as advocacy. People "advocate" in these threads because we don't want to live under mass surveillance. This has already been discussed in depth in books like 1984.
ofjcihen 28d ago
I like that you told him what you wanted him to find to give to you so that you could read it. The point was his to prove I guess but I can’t help but wonder if you were actually interested in being convinced you wouldn’t have just taken the time to do a quick GPT/Google search.

hackernud3s 28d ago

Yes and in each case of people being correctly imprisoned, Flock was right. That's because it's a tautology.