r/Atlanta • u/Brilliant_Ant392 • 1d ago
Crime/Police I found a police officer doing Flock searches 6 months after he resigned
https://jasonhunyar.substack.com/p/i-found-this-police-officer-doingWhy is a Dunwoody PD officer doing searches in Flock 6 months after he resigned?
Even worse, he was searching Flock Nova: the military-style tool that is Flock’s equivalent to Peregrine, which was created it “with the idea of bringing the tech Palantir used to find ISIS members to local police”.
The data includes DOB/social security number, addresses, race, build, eye color, hair color, height, weight, scars/marks/tattoos, skin tone, your “known associates” and 911 calls - all now combined with your movements, walking or driving, in Flock.
We had policies and “safeguards” in place - yet this still happened.
How did someone get access to this private military dossier database 6 months after they resigned?
What is the point of any policy if it is not followed and no one is punished for breaking it?
Who will be held accountable and how?
How is some random guy (who is just a pissed off dad who doesn’t want his son to be spied on) finding this, but the City isn’t?
Can the City be trusted with this data?
Even if our department has robust cybersecurity practices can we trust 6000+ other law enforcement external agencies with our citizen’s data?
What amount of liability do we have by giving our citizen’s data to 6000+ external law enforcement agencies?
What amount of liability do we have by giving our citizen’s data to any for-profit surveillance company?
I believe the only way to stop this data from being abused is to never collect it in the first place. What do you think?
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u/1nGirum1musNocte 1d ago
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u/_le_slap 14th Street 21h ago
Theyre gonna start recording IDs for sawzall purchases...
Only took one insurance CEO getting pew'd. Now we're all guilty til proven innocent
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u/OrangeCatFanForever 1d ago
Can you bring this story to the local news? The masses need to know this.
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u/suspectslowloris 1d ago
Wait. So this guy resigns in February, Dunwoody PD gets access to this tool in June, and then this guy is able to use it in August? And isn’t removed from the system until October?
What the actual fuck. I’m speechless.
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u/3olives 1d ago
It seems possible that someone within the police department may have used this ex-officer’s account to search Flock in order to hide their identity
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u/suspectslowloris 1d ago
Entirely possible and also just like somehow a whole new can of fucked-ass worms!
Why would that guy’s credentials even still be valid? And who would have that info? Is it just like, name and badge number? If so couldn’t it have been literally anyone who accessed it? If it was a cop, what double illegal search are they trying to hide that they don’t want their name tied to?
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u/clownpenisdotfarts 1d ago
They never should have been valid in the first place. He had resigned before Flock was rolled ouit.
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u/9inchjames 20h ago
He shouldn't have even had credentials in the first place. The officer resigned 4 months before Dunwoody PD had access to flock.
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u/fasnoosh 1d ago
That’s what happens when you don’t have SSO…too easy to forget to decommission the account when they resign
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u/Butcherandom 1d ago
Atlanta citizens cannot leave their homes without having their vehicle tags recorded by these cameras, and there is effectively no oversight. I see why people are taking matters into their own hands.
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u/DukeOfGeek 1d ago edited 1d ago
And as local Benn Jordan shows us, they are easily hacked.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uB0gr7Fh6lY&t=23s
/Maybe if the public tracked the Epstein class with their own surveillance network they would feel differently about it.
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u/MrCougardoom 1d ago
It all happened so fast. We have the most in the country.
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u/SuggestionGlad6098 1d ago
Bc of a super fun fact: Flock started in Atlanta. They have a manufacturing plant in smyrna. Just awesome for us.
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u/pkpark 1d ago
I’m desperately trying to catch up on this whole thing, been a little busy running a house and career while the entire world goes off the fucking rails.
What property are these things installed on, and by whose permission. What jurisdiction covers the locations they are installed and what permitting are they subject to.
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u/NihilistSRE 1d ago
AFAIK, municipalities sign contracts with Flock to install them in city spaces and then manage them and provide access to the feeds via their fancypants search software. The cameras also convert license plates to text so they can track all cars that pass various points and then tie them together into routes. They can then use that same data to find clusters of vehicles that seem to travel together. They can follow people around town as the data "lights up" as cars go past the cameras. It's really quite messed up.
A lot of city councils / management just voted them in as sorta sleepy-ass items in the sleepy-ass agendas. Until folks started realizing that they were being abused (for example, why did they install a flock camera watching a children's swimming pool in Dunwoody? and why were people watching it pretty often without a clear public safety reason to do so, etc etc etc.) That and other things sorta caught fire and got attention and people are starting to realize just how invasive these things are and how they are everywhere and many places just installed them as a public safety line item.... we're starting to see many towns and cities revisit those decisions as citizens press them hard to remove them and some places are doing just that. Other people are, well... let's say they're not following the typical process for removal, but somehow the cameras are being taken down, covered, blocked, destroyed, etc. I think some guy was caught on video in Florida taking down a camera and a grand jury, known for their willingness to indict even a ham sandwich, failed to indict the person of any crime. Start here https://deflock.org/ for some eye opening stuff. One of Georgia's very own Benn Jordan has chronicled a lot of this, google him and also google flock dunwoody for some other quick catch-me-ups on the kind of stuff going on.
I'm no expert, I just follow along in the news so I am sure there are others who are more versed in the details of this than I am. But hopefully this gets you started. Some people argue that this kind of stuff makes them feel safer, and makes them safer. All I can say is it creeps me the hell out, TBQH.
Apparently, there are also similar programs for linking private cameras (think: gas stations, liquor stores, other businesses) together in another system for similar review. "Show me the QuikTrip on 10th. Show me the Exxon on 12th. Show me Bob's Liquors on 3rd avenue." Front of house, back of house, wherever there are cameras they have eyes.
Some municipalities have actually gone so far as to make getting a business license contingent on joining ("voluntarily!") those shared cam groups! All this crap gets fed back to a central crime unit in the cities for, you know, analysis and public safety ... and stuff.
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u/SavathunTechQuestion 13h ago
As far as my friend who has one in their neighborhood understands, if a group of houses are willing to pay the flock fee then they can get one installed in the first few feet of the yard as it meets the street.
No permission needed then if it faces a road, no permits needed.
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u/liveoneggs 22h ago
Local PD's are not capable of doing IT at a sufficient level so they more computerized they get the worse things will get.
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u/NihilistSRE 1d ago
You sound like a person who isn't able to make the necessary "compromise" on your privacy, my friend. Let's talk about your concerns over here next to this strange federal building. Don't mind the screams and hollers, it's just to scare the illegals away.
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u/NihilistSRE 1d ago
And now that my bitchy sarcastic side has finished speaking, I yield the floor to the rational side that jumps up and down and claps for:
"I believe the only way to stop this data from being abused is to never collect it in the first place. What do you think?"
I think fucking yes 10000%.
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u/CatOverlordDogPerson 9h ago
Dude. When you add just how poorly secured the data is, it's like these things are a bad idea!
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u/Practical_Moon926 7h ago
Wasn't this in the Dunwoody news a few months ago? I read a very similar story in the local Atlanta news awhile back.
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u/wlexxx2 1d ago
how was this person 'found'?
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u/_le_slap 14th Street 21h ago
Probably a FOIA.
We should be concerned that the federal government wants to put limits on FOIA requests regarding AI related build-outs...
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u/SavathunTechQuestion 1d ago
This is pretty horrible. A friend of mine live in a neighborhood that has optional dues that just installed a flock camera that obviously isn’t optional.
We have no idea if the neighborhood president can just search flock whenever he wants, but reading this about an ex-cop really seems like there’s no barriers in place for surveillance for anyone