🚨 WHO IS WATCHING THE WATCHMEN? 🚨
After being contacted by a citizen and a recent story about another officer abusing the FLOCK system, we looked harder. A citizen contacted us about how their local department actually released to him a picture of his truck being tracked. This should bother you, that violates state law as Flock data is 100% exempt from open records, even your own data.
Flock Safety, a startup founded to use license plate readers to help return stolen cars to their owners and solve violent crimes, has been in reports for months regarding the many ways in which its system is being misused by investigators in a large number of states for stalking, harassment and other misconduct by police.
How Surveillance Technology Is Being Abused By Local Police Departments Across The following is how local police departments are using a massive, highly centralized database to facilitate the
There are reported cases in multiple states including Kansas, Florida, and Wisconsin where police officers have lost their jobs and been charged for using ALPR’s to stalk, track, and intercept wives, exes, and other romantic interests at their homes or places of work while they are at home or work.
We have documented cases of local police departments use of the Flock Safety system to track individuals going to and from reproductive health care facilities, monitoring of activists and others conducting peaceful free speech activities, and sharing of information with federal agencies such as ICE in order to track and deport immigrants.
Racial Profiling: The EFF recently uncovered several instances of police officers using racist language and stereotypes to run license plate searches and to map out entire communities of color for no apparent reason.
Even though the search data and all activity on the Flock Safety system is tracked with tamper proof audit logs which reveal down to the individual who performed a search for what, it takes dozens of police to lose their jobs for the harm that is done in the meantime to be acknowledged.
Because of the massive privacy risks to individuals that are posed by the huge amounts of data that Flock Safety collects and shares as well as the instances of unauthorized data sharing with other groups, many cities and counties have now pulled the program off line and terminated their contracts with the company.
Privacy isn’t about hiding something. It’s about stopping absolute surveillance.
#PrivacyRights #DigitalSurveillance #PoliceAccountability #FlockSafety #CivilLiberties