“I don’t think it’s my job”: Flock CEO responds to camera abuse concerns
Flock cameras are coming under increased scrutiny as more and more people are becoming victims of mistaken identity and facing prosecution for crimes they did not commit. Using a combination of circumstantial evidence, questionable camera footage, and a heavy dose of AI, police departments across the U.S are increasingly relying on this 7-year-old private company to do policing, even when the system might be getting it wrong.
To be clear, it is not just Flock that causes these wrongful prosecutions. As YouTuber Mental Outlaw outlined in a recent video, the increased use of AI facial recognition software, automated license plate readers, gunfire detection microphones, and similar systems is being deployed without proper training or operational security measures to ensure that the data collected is managed and used responsibly or even lawfully, as some recent situations have exposed. One of the more serious cases was when Michael Williams, a Chicago native, was jailed for almost a year on a murder accusation, with evidence from a gunshot detection microphone known as ShotSpotter. What's worse is that ShotSpotter initially flagged the sound as a firework and didn't even detect it in Williams's vicinity. Yet, it was enough evidence for the police to detain him, despite finding no physical evidence on him during his search. While alarming in itself, this level of reliance on AI evidence is rapidly becoming the standard. Systems like Flock are contributing to its standardization, whether due to its ubiquitous involvement in license plate reading and traffic infractions, or because Flock is hiring outside PR agencies to help tailor their product to police departments nationwide.
For license plate readers specifically, Mental Outlaw discusses how the burden of proof has shifted from police departments to drivers, as photographic evidence from these systems has seemingly become infallible. Infalibility is certainly not the case, as another man from Florida, Jacob Rockwell, has recently gone viral when he showed up at a city counsel meeting to educate them on the intricacies of dealing with private companies to get fair shot of contesting his red light citation, which he wasn't even in the state for, while paying for the ticket was as easy as going to an online portal. Enter Flock, whether it's immigrant tracking, abortion surveillance, out-of-state privacy violations, hacking concerns, or blatant data abuse by officers, Flock has largely washed their hands of any responsibility and is focused on gathering more data and signing more clients, as explained by the CEO, Garrett Langley in an interview he did with 9News, where he said "I don't think its my job to" in response to a question about his involvement in controlling how the police are using his companies data. He goes on to explain that he would contact the appropriate officials to address the misuse of the data he is supplying, which, ironically, would likely be the police department that is abusing the data to begin with. However, states have taken notice, with many canceling contracts with Flock and similar agencies, and people have also started tracking the deployment of these cameras using systems like DeFlock, which Langley considers a "terroristic organization," and OpenMaps. Curious users can find More information in the resources below.
Source(s)
Flock PR Listing, Flock Data Misuse [1][2][3], Flock Camera bootloader vulnerabilities, 9NEWS interview, Hex Studio interview, Mental Outlaw on Youtube
Add as a preferred source on Google
