Brian Service provider, writing for Blood within the Machine, experiences that individuals throughout the US are dismantling and destroying Flock surveillance cameras, amid rising public anger that the license plate readers help U.S. immigration authorities and deportations.
Flock is the Atlanta-based surveillance startup valued at $7.5 billion a yr in the past and a maker of license plate readers. It has confronted criticism for permitting federal authorities entry to its huge community of nationwide license plate readers and databases at a time when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement are more and more counting on information to raid communities as a part of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
Flock cameras permit authorities to trace the place folks go and when by taking pictures of their license plates from hundreds of cameras situated throughout the US. Flock claims it doesn’t share information with ICE immediately, however experiences present that native police have shared their very own entry to Flock cameras and its databases with federal authorities.
Whereas some communities are calling on their cities to finish their contracts with Flock, others are taking issues into their very own fingers.
Service provider experiences cases of damaged and smashed Flock cameras in La Mesa, California, simply weeks after town council accredited the continuation of Flock cameras deployed within the metropolis, regardless of a transparent majority of attendees favoring their shutdown. A neighborhood report cited sturdy opposition to the surveillance know-how, with residents elevating privateness issues.
Different circumstances of vandalism have stretched from California and Connecticut, to Illinois and Virginia. In Oregon, six license plate scanning cameras on poles have been minimize down and at the least one spray painted. A be aware left on the base of the severed poles mentioned, “Hahaha get wrecked ya surveilling fucks,” experiences Service provider.
In line with DeFlock, a undertaking aimed toward mapping license plate readers, there are near 80,000 cameras throughout the US. Dozens of cities have to this point rejected the usage of Flock’s cameras, and a few police departments have since blocked federal authorities from utilizing their assets.
A Flock spokesperson didn’t say, when reached by information.killnetswitch, if the corporate retains monitor of how what number of cameras have been destroyed since being deployed.
