The flock situation has certainly gotten out of hand in both directions. The deployment and abuse, as well as the reaction to both. But it can’t be all that surprising. Most of this activity occurs at the municipal level, and 70% of voters are inclined to let 25-30% decide everything.
Guess why your taxes suck, your regulations grow, your property taxes are out of control, your school board doesn’t listen (nor do your schools actually teach anything of value), and you were alarmed to discover you live in a surveillance state, and the people the 30% picked for you are probably abusing it.
Yes, it’s your own fault, but now that we’ve got your attention, a few interesting observations.
Massholes discovered that there are loads of these cameras observing them on the way to the packie or Dunkin’s, and for reasons they don’t entirely understand, it has unnerved them. [Related: Morning Update: “What the Flock!”]
Massachusetts is one of the bluest states in the nation. Generations of Bay Staters vote Democrat for no other reason than that their parents and grandparents did. I have posited more than once that the success of Dunkin Donuts in Massachusetts can be credibly linked to their being two Ds in the name (just the one now; they rebranded to Dunkin, and America is supposed to run on it.
They do around here, and while the Starbucks virus has done a good deal of spreading, it has a long way to go to achieve the corner count of Dunkin’. Both being filled with registered Democrats using Apple devices to bitch in surprise at how surveilled they are.
The outrage meter pinged, and even Massachusetts municipalities are like, huh?
Based on accumulated statements from the municipalities, Flock deals were recently canceled in Bellingham, Douglas, East Bridgewater, Grafton, which cited public concerns about the technology. Auburn and Hopkinton both cited contractual deficiencies in their recent announcements.
New Bedford paused its use of Flock after a city police officer was put on leave, accused of using the department’s Flock camera system to track her ex-girlfriend. Lynn said two of its police officers were placed on paid administrative leave after an audit identified a “concerning pattern in some searches” conducted using the department’s license plate reader technology.
Framingham’s contract with Flock expired on June 30, and the cameras in that city were turned off.
Earlier this year, Salem officials credited the readers with helping solve several cases, including the bombing of the Satanic Temple, but said they planned to seek an alternative vendor with different data privacy rules.
Last year, the city of Cambridge severed its ties with Flock Safety after the company’s technicians allegedly deployed two cameras without the awareness of local officials.
Cambridge severed ties to prevent cameras from identifying insane shooters of color randomly discharging firearms, but that’s a nice story.
And WBZ’s map is lacking. The DeFlock app shows more than a few “more than fews,” and the drama is much more poignant.
This app screen grab covers North Shore, Boston, and South Shore, and you can zoom in to see the actual numbers, which are nearly 600 within this screen grab alone.
Additional surveillance north and west, but after you leave the 495 hub, they are fewer, with Western Mass having none, but for a few on the highways as far as Springfield.
As I’ve reported previously, there are very few in New Hampshire, and state law limits their use, and data must be deleted unless there is some immediate, obvious criminal circumstance. That is, of course, no solace when we hear stories about how LEOs using Flock have been directed to innocent individuals.
The New Hampshire law also lacks teeth. There are audits, but the penalties for misuse or abuse are thin to none. You might risk losing your spy camera, but disincentives for individuals are lacking, and human beings are the single greatest threat coupled with this technology. [Related: MACDONALD: The Right to Keep and Bear…Surveillance and AI?]
The DSA and Democrats are not anti-surveillance; on the contrary. Socialist success requires it alongside human sources (snitches). If you’re thinking that’s a stretch they you forgot about the response to COVID.
The Dems didn’t just take away First, Fourth, Fifth, Ninth, and Tenth Amendment rights (the last two were obviously federal abrogations); they had snitch lines, human sources. And California just passed and signed the Stop Nick Shirley Act, which violates freedom of speech, press, and association, and is offensive to liberty. It is, in fact, the sort of thing democrats would accuse Trump of, but that Trump’s DOJ will have to undo to return freedoms California Democrats stole from its people.
It’s nice to see the pushback in states like Massachusetts, but until we see more informed participation in local elections everywhere, towns and cities will continue to do all kinds of harm to their citizens in the name of good government – when there’s truly no such thing.
