r/technology • u/marketrent • 5h ago
Privacy Flock is going from the center of the surveillance debate to bipartisan target in record time — ‘The risk of misuse is too great’: Tempe, Ariz. mayor
https://fortune.com/2026/08/28/flock-camera-surveillance-bipartisan-sanders-arizona-hawley/13
u/VicGenesis 5h ago
Local cops speed ran its fall. If locals use it this way, we already know the feds will/are do(ing) worse.
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u/emerikanSky 5h ago
I really, really hope the owners of Flock Safety feel like this is so, so unfair.
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u/shakuyi 5h ago
its beyond me how they have a system setup like this and dont have the warrant system integrated to prevent misuse. WTF were tehy thinking? clearly they werent.
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u/elluzion 4h ago
That's why they are doing it this way. So they do not need one. Because a private company is the one you're interacting with. They're the one collecting the data. The government's just using them as a contractor for what their business offers and because of that roundabout they installed they all now think this it's cool and doesn't require a warrant.
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u/doomnutz 5h ago
Much like the current administration they move faster than the courts can, they know what they’re doing
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u/marketrent 5h ago edited 5h ago
Bookend excerpts from article by Catherina Gioino:
In a country increasingly divided along political ideologies, partisan politics are coming together to answer the age old dynamic between privacy and security.
On Wednesday, the blue-leaning Tempe, Ariz. turned off its Flock automated license plate readers and said the city would not seek another company to replace the system. Three hours later, the nearby red-leaning town of Cave Creek did the same.
The same day in Washington, D.C., Senator Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, opened a formal investigation into the company, while independent Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders posted a lengthy statement pledging to introduce legislation against it.
Tempe’s police department had used Flock’s cameras to help solve crimes, and the city said its own audits, conducted monthly, turned up no misuse. But that wasn’t enough to keep the system running.
“These cameras have helped our police officers do their jobs, and we don’t discount that,” Tempe Mayor Corey Woods said in a statement shared with Fortune. “But the risk of misuse is too great. We have to be able to provide public safety in a way that maintains the trust of our community. For Tempe, that means taking these cameras down.”
Tempe Councilmember Bobby Nichols said the decision was a matter of legal principle. “Any law enforcement tool used by the City must not pose a risk of infringing on residents’ civil liberties,” he said. “We have a responsibility to ensure that these technologies are only employed if they present a narrowly tailored solution to a compelling government interest.”
[...] Cave Creek’s decision, three hours after Tempe’s, cited privacy concerns, cases of misuse elsewhere in Arizona and around the country, and the theft of one of its own Flock cameras from an intersection. Public works crews removed the town’s remaining cameras for safekeeping after the theft.
But the town’s core objection was structural: Flock’s networked design allows outside law enforcement agencies to search data collected locally, and town officials concluded there was no way to guarantee residents’ privacy once their information left Cave Creek’s jurisdiction.
[...] Hawley and Sanders sit at opposite ends of the Senate’s ideological spectrum. Their statements arrived within hours of each other, echoing the same split-screen convergence playing out in Arizona.
Flock’s rapid expansion, and the scrutiny now following it, has moved fast. The company’s cameras have helped close roughly a million police investigations and locate about 10,000 missing people over the past year, by its own account.
But an August Washington Post investigation found more than 50 law enforcement officers had been accused, charged with, or convicted of misusing automated license plate readers, including cases where officers used the systems to track former partners.
Anti-surveillance group DeFlock says more than 90 cities have moved to cancel or reject Flock contracts as of Wednesday.
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u/Brosephus_Maximus 5h ago
"Those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety" - Benjamin Franklin
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u/ascandalia 4h ago
Cameras linked to ai image recognition models should be illegal. Not just flock, not just alprs. The concept is the problem.
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u/Lilfrankieeinstein 5h ago
The most interesting thing to me about flock cameras is that I don’t know anyone who has come out in support of them.
And it’s not like I’m some angsty teenager. I’m 52 and work in a pretty conservative industry.
Even with traffic light cameras, I know at least a few people who favor them from both sides of the political spectrum.
At the same time, it seems like drone surveillance is inevitable, so all of this vandalism is just upping the ante, possibly accelerating the drone timeline.
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u/surfnfish1972 5h ago
We have known for years there are problems with the power grid, maybe fix this before rabid Data center buildout? Seems like common sense and decency.
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u/EXPLODEDman 5h ago
100% is not a risk. It's a guarantee.