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DeKalb deputy charged with Flock camera misuse; more Georgia officers fired
- striking 3mo agohttps://archive.is/KPans https://archive.is/KPans
- pir8life4me 3mo agoAt least seven other Georgia law enforcement officers were fired this month and charged with misusing the technology. That includes a Henry County police officer who was fired and arrested last week following an investigation into his access of the Flock network, authorities there said.
- NetworkPerson 3mo agoI'm not sure what to think here. Legitimate misuse, sure. But the article says at least one person only looked up their own license plate. I feel like that should be considered acceptable. It's not law enforcement usage specifically, but can't I grant myself the right to see information on my own vehicle? Yes, devil's advocate could say if standard citizens can't, no one can. Just seems so minor it's not worth losing a job over. All other cases (including plates of family which you don't directly own), yes, investigate fully and apply appropriate actions.
- BigTTYGothGF 3mo ago> I feel like that should be considered acceptable Not if they're married and their spouse also drives the vehicle.
- jagged-chisel 3mo agoEthics aside, I don’t think there’s a legal issue with obtaining data on one’s spouse.
- samrus 3mo agoLegal issue no, but with how much more likely cops are to be domestic abusers, i think its very dangerous
- kibwen 3mo agoGiven how many murders are committed against one's spouse, there ought to be.
- maxerickson 3mo agoSo what's your point? "Ethics aside" for the person empowered to act on behalf of the state?
- tclancy 3mo agoThat’s a take. Maybe stop, say it out loud and see if you catch yourself. Like, why am I searching for where my own car has been? Oh right, because I am worried about the safety of my children. God save us from child safety.
- stavros 3mo agoReally? Doesn't a spouse have a right to privacy? I don't see how getting married makes you forfeit privacy rights you otherwise have. Unless you mean that there's no legal issue with obtaining data in anyone, which is a much larger problem.
- samrus 3mo agoIt basically shows a lack of respect for the gravity of these tools. If a cop was fucking around with a gun, youd want them held accountable for that so there is a standard of care in using these things. We need that because these can be very dangerous if misused, even unintentionally. The next thing this cop might do with alpr data is look up their friend to play a prank on them or something. Its gotta be nipped in the bud
- jackb4040 3mo agoIt's misuse precisely because any civilian can't use the same tool. Despite how they act, cops do not have a separate set of legal rights that extend to their off-duty lives. If a cop was checking to make sure they got away with drunk driving, it removes factors that might deter them from continuing that behavior.
- sroussey 3mo agoIt’s a test with a good excuse. If caught, it’s only their own data, right? If not caught, then time to abuse the system.
- fhdkweig 3mo agoIn the state of Georgia, https://eservices.drives.ga.gov/_/ https://eservices.drives.ga.gov/_/ gives access to the following information based on license plate or VIN: Look-up Information Look-up the status of your title, insurance, or registration. Also view available prestige plates or license plates, vehicle history, or search for ELT lienholders. Check Title Status Check Insurance Status Check Registration Status Check Prestige License Plate Availability View License Plates Search ELT Lienholder Vehicle History Lookup Check on My Purchase from a Dealer I don't think there is any website that will tell you where a car has been and when it was last spotted, and I assume that was the kind of information that Flock would be gathering.
- rolph 3mo agoim not sure if anyone saw me, was my presence noted on camera at the time and locale of a crime? thats why looking up your own marker, should be suspicious, its reconaissance, investigating the investigation. when someone queries the police for status of info, or tries to be overly helpful its a checkmark toward reasonable suspicion.
- roncesvalles 3mo agoIn a way, new companies like Flock entering such domains are a boon because they probably maintain tight audit logs and alerting mechanisms. Traditional look-up software is probably being misused by cops all the time (à la the old noir trope of a PI having "a buddy in the department" who can look up anything for him).
- etdznots 3mo agoThe same exact thing happens with Flock, the only cases we hear about are because the tool empowers such easy abuse of liberty that people make no efforts to hide what they’re doing
- themaninthedark 3mo agoThis news and the timing of it seems like it is trying to elicit your response. Flock has been getting a lot of bad press recently. The first batch of firing that happened in GA was not because of Flock safeguards, it was because an internal auditor said let's look at your new system. If they cared about privacy, they would have had such a system in place not something that is just being rolled out. Second, these people are getting caught because “The activity identified during the audit revealed that the employees searched their own license plates or those of a family member/acquaintance, and not random members of the public,” A fair reading of that says it is ok to look up information on random members of the public. I feel better already. If the bar is set at random people, a friend of a friend looking up the info and getting it back to you would get around the safeguards, back to the old buddy in the department.
- jareklupinski 3mo agoi always hoped the "buddy" would be the lever that goes "no, that's crossing the line between friendship and ethics, please rethink your request" something an artificial buddy will happily do anyway when you promise that your grandmother is on the line
- lovich 3mo ago> i always hoped the "buddy" would be the lever that goes "no, that's crossing the line between friendship and ethics, please rethink your request" What percent of law enforcement agents do you think would meet that bar?
- readthenotes1 3mo agoFlock: You thought we put the cameras up to spy on you. Haha on the police who buy them and rat themselves out!
- arkhiver 3mo agoarchived: https://nonogra.ph/3-more-georgia-police-officers-fired-over-alleged-flock-camera-misuse-07-20-2026 https://nonogra.ph/3-more-georgia-police-officers-fired-over...
- ChrisArchitect 3mo agothis isn't an archive. This is copied text onto a page, possibly modified. Please use one of the standard archive.today sites or wayback machine to offer mirrors.
- seventytwo 3mo agoGosh, no one could have predicted this.
- tclancy 3mo agoJust going to leave this here. I grew up in Rhode Island in the Eighties and if a cop got turfed from the cops in Rhode Island, you pretty much know they did something right. https://youtu.be/f1P-g3Hkvjg?is=d-00G7YND4OJrUY3 https://youtu.be/f1P-g3Hkvjg?is=d-00G7YND4OJrUY3
- jwsteigerwalt 3mo agoIf you want a bit of irony, look up the Flock CEO’s home address (not terribly difficult). You will see it’s blurred out on Google Maps Street View
- trogdor 3mo agoAnyone can request their residence be blurred on Street View. I did it myself about six years ago.
- therealpygon 3mo agoI’d have a lot less heartburn with these types of systems if the system prevented mass data exfiltration by organizations (so they can’t simply retain the non-evidence themselves), and limited ALL non-anonymized data retention to the prior 30 days unless there is a signed court order. To me, that is a perfectly reasonable compromise between safety and privacy. No articulated suspicion to a judge means your data evaporates after 30 days.