Police scanned Flock cameras in a single town in Illinois more than 1,200 times to investigate cases of loitering.
Cops Are Using Flock to Spy on People for the Crime of Standing Around
https://theintercept.com/2026/09/09/flock-cameras-police-loitering-curfew-surveillance/
20 Comments
Nouvellalia@lemmy.world · 30 pts · 19h
By next year there will be cities in which drones are dispatched to disperse any crowd of 5 or more people, anywhere the AI sees them.
givesomefucks@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 18h
Completely unrelated:
You can buy lasers on Temu that you should absolutely not point at a camera because it will burn it out almost immediately.
Some are especially dangerous, because they include "spread caps" that make it a bunch of dots or a design meaning you could easily accidentally put out the cameras in Flock towers or drones with a passing flash.
Because even if it's AI, it needs to see where it's flying.
Dadifer@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 16h
Could you link one, please?
0x0@infosec.pub · 6 pts · 15h
https://a.aliexpress.com/_EIj59ym
Just be careful with other peoples eyes, dont even look at the dot, lasers are really bad toys
northertech@fedia.io · 2 pts · 12h
I would actually suggest against pointing a class 3 laser above the horizon. I have tried to figure out how far one would be at full illumination and I had no way of measuring over 2km. Any pilot can see one from like a 10 km radius of the beam.
givesomefucks@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 11h
It 100% is dangerous.
But...
Acceptable levels of danger depends on the situation.
Statistically speaking you're more likely to be shot if you own a gun. I'd still recommend Americans have at least a gun these days.
That's not the same as saying go drive around busting caps like it's 2016 again. Just like pointing out the cheapness of those lasers and what they do to surveillance and drones isn't telling people to buy one today and a month later when it shows up use it like a searchlight on premier night.
Things happen fast these days, if people are legitimately concerned about widespread use of government surveillance drones...
$50 can buy some peace of mind.
Funkt4st1c@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 10h
So, youre saying someone could be out of visual range of a camera and still take it down? Thats horrible!
alakey@piefed.social · 8 pts · 15h
It is unironically illegal to stand around with more than 2 people outside in russia, which maga is so adamant to follow the example of, so you are not far off.
jrTug_2T@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 5 pts · 14h
And by the following year, top hats housing hidden EMP cannons will be all the rage.
Nouvellalia@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 12h
Finally! A use for all these gears and gauges!
jrTug_2T@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 4 pts · 11h
Carmakazi@piefed.social · 26 pts · 19h
I think the flipside to all this is that over time it will legitimately damage the police's ability to do actual investigative work if all they learn and put into practice is "consult Flock" for every trivial thing. If Flock is damaged or circumvented or comes up empty, what then?
eestileib@sh.itjust.works · 37 pts · 19h
They'll frame somebody like they always have, you think cops ever gave a fuck about investigating things?
Carmakazi@piefed.social · 8 pts · 19h
When the victim is themselves or their preferred clientele, sure. You think they sit on their ass if a cop gets shot during a traffic stop?
vorpuni@tarte.nuage-libre.fr · 3 pts · 16h
The murder resolution rate in the USA is already very low. Police also don't have any obligations to protect or serve. They don't care.
Malica@lemmy.zip · 22 pts · 17h
Probably harassing homeless people :(
jrTug_2T@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 14 pts · 14h
Yeah, they were already doing this with their own cameras.
I got real tired of being told to stop "loitering" by a pre-recorded voice every time I came up the alley to pick up my McDonald's order, just because someone else hates homeless people so much that they're willing to alienate their own regular customers.
roofuskit@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 11h
I heard flock hid a bitcoin in one of their cameras like Willy Wonka's golden ticket. If you find it you get to keep it.
Ceruleum@lemmy.wtf · 2 pts · 6h
They also make excellent toilets, after some tinkering.
roofuskit@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 11h
Did you all hear? There's as platinum in a flock camera as a catalytic converter.