Brian Service provider, writing for Blood in the Machine, studies that individuals throughout the USA 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 is more and more counting on information to raid communities as a part of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
Flock cameras enable authorities to trace the place folks go and when by taking images of their license plates from hundreds of cameras situated throughout the USA. Flock claims it doesn’t share information with ICE straight, however studies 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 end their contracts with Flock, others are taking issues into their very own arms.
Service provider studies situations 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 local report cited sturdy opposition to the surveillance expertise, 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 had been minimize down and a minimum of one spray-painted. A word left on the base of the severed poles stated, “Hahaha get wrecked ya surveilling fucks,” reports Merchant.
In line with DeFlock, a mission aimed toward mapping license plate readers, there are near 80,000 cameras throughout the USA. Dozens of cities have to date rejected using 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 TechCrunch, if the corporate retains observe of what number of cameras have been destroyed since being deployed.
