Police officers are being told to “be as vague as permissible” about why they are using the Flock surveillance system in order to not leak sensitive information via public records requests, according to records obtained using a public records request. The warning originated from a Houston-area police intelligence center that includes members of the FBI and ICE and suggests without evidence that people are using a website called HaveIBeenFlocked.com to “potentially retaliate against law enforcement.”
The warnings were shared with 404 Media by researchers from Southerners Against Surveillance Systems and Infrastructure and Lucy Parsons Lab after our article about police unwittingly leaking the details of millions of surveillance targets nationwide due to public records redaction errors made by several Flock automated license plate reader system customers. This data was aggregated into a searchable tool called HaveIBeenFlocked.
Rather than looking at this incident as a huge operational security failure associated with using a massive commercial surveillance system, police see this as something that puts their officers directly in harm’s way. The data released by police departments includes the agency doing a search, the officer’s name, time of search, the license plate searched, and a “reason” field, which is the justification for doing a specific search.
Archive: http://archive.today/DtKt4
Acab
There’s one of those right outside my neighborhood, and I’m not sure what to do with it.
Have you seen Cool Hand Luke?
I bet it’s not too hard to cover it in paintballs or find a way to make it fall off a pole
Not much within the legal window. Maybe petition for its removal.
Unrelated, but I believe an axe and a mask usually work pretty well on most electronic devices. Driving out of town, walking back in on a non flock path, ensuring you have a “limp” as well as non descriptive/logoless clothes, and ensuring you have no devices on you, are all great general opsec tips as well.
In other places, people have done all sorts of legal things in front of ALPRs, from presenting them with a steady stream of license plate photos of law enforcement vehicles from out of state, to putting on plays, dance performances and other forms of entertainment in front of them and then submitting FOIA requests for the footage since they’re being consumed (indirectly) by the government. In states that have actual privacy laws, people are requesting all information Flock has on them from the company in order to verify that it is accurate. In some places, they can even require removal.
People in my neighborhood constantly cut speed cameras down every other week, do with this as you will.
I wonder if lasers ruin them like older cameras?
Infrared lasers used in lidar systems will damage phone cameras, so likely will fry surveillance cameras as well. You can buy 1550nm lasers used as illuminators for night vision systems. Probably want a Class 2 or 3.
https://www.techeblog.com/lidar-smartphone-camera-sensor-damage/
If you get a big enough laser, anything is possible.
Bullet through the battery should be pretty effective. Surely they are lithium batteries. They catch fire if they get a hole in 'em.
I was just thinking the laser thing could be something they may not be able to identify the cause of, a bullet they would know someone shot it. Which is probably ok if you are smart about doing one, but if you want to do all of them, something sneaky would be better.
They live in their own paranoid delusional world where everyone is out to get them and they are the heroes between bad and good.
That’s what the police training has been teaching them to do. Learning about it was extremely scary, because seriously why the fuck would you teach cops of all fucking people to shoot at the first twinge of fear and that everyone is out to get them!
ThE tHiN BlUe LiNe
Rather than looking at this incident as a huge operational security failure associated with using a massive commercial surveillance system, police see this as something that puts their officers directly in harm’s way.
Why not both?
