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Police chief unplugs Flock cameras after company ignores contract cancellation

114 points entryleveljobsc 2 hours ago 27 comments

bluecollarworke 1 hour ago | parent

Gee, with vendors like this, who needs criminals?

analog31 1 hour ago | parent

At least the cameras make it easy to track the criminals down... to the location of the cameras.

xlayn 3 minutes ago | parent

The police?

voakbasda 1 hour ago | parent

So if they no longer have a contract, how is it legal for Flock to continue to use the allocated resources? Why not hit them with theft of service for continuing to draw power and use public infrastructure?

They will never change their behavior when there are no consequences for their actions.

blooalien 1 hour ago | parent

> So if they no longer have a contract, how is it legal for Flock to continue to use the allocated resources?

They've even been caught putting them back up or re-enabling them in places where the contract has been canceled. How is that legal? I thought you had to be city-approved to install equipment like that. One would think that no contract = no approval?

Maybe they need to set up a "sting" operation at one of the disabled units and start makin' some arrests/fines for unapproved equipment installation/construction on public property? See if that changes some minds over at Flock about what they can and cannot get away with?

jazzypants 27 minutes ago | parent

We're quickly moving into cyberpunk territory where corporations simply stop being accountable to governments.

porkshoe 45 minutes ago | parent

American laws don't apply to billionaires or corporations.

unrented7977 28 minutes ago | parent

Dunno why you're getting downvoted, it's the plain and simple reality of America today

petterroea 17 minutes ago | parent

Similarly to how many don't want to tax the rich because their goal is to become rich themselves, many people in here, especially on the startup side, want to be the next Elon musk

theoreticalmal 3 minutes ago | parent

Isn’t Bill Gates’ daughter in a tight legal spot for things she did? And didn’t that medical upstart lady get put in prison for several years?

kevin_thibedeau 19 minutes ago | parent

They're just following the Uber business model. Consequences for thee, not for me.

idopmstuff 13 minutes ago | parent

The article doesn't really tell us what the contract terms are, though. Just because the city voted to cancel the contract doesn't mean it ends immediately and Flock has to come remove all the cameras upon request. It's very likely the contract has a fixed term, and cancellation really just means they're not going to renew it at the end of the term. If that's the case, you can't charge them with crimes for using infrastructure that the contract permits them to use.

Still terrible that Flock isn't responding to them, and of course even if they intend to hold the city to the contract in terms of expecting to be paid for the full duration, they should still honor the request to shut off service.

SoftTalker 3 minutes ago | parent

One week to respond to a letter delivered by US postal mail isn't really much time. Not that I support the concept of Flock-style public cameras, but I don't think you can judge them to be "not responding" that quickly.

Papazsazsa 1 hour ago | parent

One of the most compelling aspects of American governance is the latitude local law enforcement has. They can be both an ally and enemy to freedom.

dmos62 1 hour ago | parent

Are they elected?

Loughla 56 minutes ago | parent

Depends on the type of police. Sheriff's are, I know. But I'm pretty sure city chiefs and state chiefs are just appointed by other elected officials. So I guess one step removed?

jfengel 35 minutes ago | parent

Some are. Usually on a campaign of "law and order", which makes Flock cameras an easy sell to their voting base. Because they let you keep an eye on the sort of people who are likely to be criminals. You know. Those people.

They themselves generally don't mind the invasion of privacy, at least not until it catches them specifically. In general they are much, much more afraid of the "crime wave" than of the police. (A crime wave which never seems to diminish, despite more and more policing and punishment. And which is contradicted by crime statistics.)

thephyber 21 minutes ago | parent

Generally the county Sheriff is elected, but the city police chief is usually appointed by civilian government.

thephyber 11 minutes ago | parent

Your comment reminds me of a post I read on a popular police forum about J Edgar Hoover (the infamous Director of the FBI for half a century). He created a professionalized police / intelligence force, but he also abused the rights of many citizens and elected political officials with that force. Supposedly he even used it to blackmail some of the Congressmen who were legally obligated to oversee his department.

And the comments in that post were a Rorschach test of where the commenter fell on how "necessary" the abuses of the FBI were.

Surac 32 minutes ago | parent

We need flock in every politics bedrooms

kirykl 26 minutes ago | parent

The cameras seem vulnerable to a simple non-invasive opaque elastic-banded plastic shower cap

thephyber 22 minutes ago | parent

I'm more interested in whether they are vulnerable to fake data being injected via a slide show of car images shown in front of the camera lens.

A picture of a known prison escapee driving the mayor's car should drive the point home after the police pull the mayor over and investigate.

1970-01-01 13 minutes ago | parent

It is just that simple folks. Unplug it.

The_Blade 9 minutes ago | parent

nonsense. here's your pillowcase, but you have to supply your own knobs

fHr 11 minutes ago | parent

good