5 ms·

> Police use the technology to investigate crimes such as hit-and-runs and to locate missing persons. > No suspects have been identified. Yeah, that tracks. >

> Police use the technology to investigate crimes such as hit-and-runs and to locate missing persons. > No suspects have been identified. Yeah, that tracks. > Camera data is owned by the police department and permanently deleted after 30 days. I assume this means that the police department deletes one local copy?

ibejoeb 2mo ago
That whole paragraph is like a paid placement. > Flock Safety cameras are automated license plate readers Like Ring is a door chime.
gowld 2mo ago
No, Flock plays a semantic game where data on Flock's servers os "owned" by the client, so Flock is not responsible for the content or management of the data.
- skybrian 2mo ago
  Isn't that what you'd expect from a camera service provider? I'd certainly want any videos taken by my own cameras to be owned by me.
  - ButlerianJihad 2mo ago
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monkey_selfie_copyright_dispute https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monkey_selfie_copyright_disput...
    - Terr_ 2mo ago
      I don't see how that relates to any of this. If I record a video of a crowd in public, under US law I have copyright to that video. The crowd isn't creating the record, I am. The issue of which group (Flock/police/city) has the real copyright versus an expensive license is interesting to contemplate, but that list doesn't include monkey-agency either.
  - eli 2mo ago
    I'm not familiar with North Dakota in particular, but at the federal level and in some states ALL works created by the government are exempt from copyright. The public paid for it, so the public owns it.
mapotofu 2mo ago
> deletes one local copy. I think you’re being a little too generous here.
advisedwang 2mo ago
> Camera data is owned by the police department and permanently deleted after 30 days There's so much going on in that sentence! What a thing of pure PR beauty. What does "owned" mean in this sentence? Probably fairly little. What data does it even refer to? Just the actual video footage? Does the statement include derived data like license plate reads or ML models? And surely if data is flagged as relevant to an investigation it is not deleted, so is there an implicit "*unless retained"?
- rconti 2mo ago
  You know, unless they get a national security letter, or change their TOS, or....
  - duped 2mo ago
    Or their app was configured to let other LE agencies access it without their knowledge in violation of state law (1). Only linked one case but afaik it happened in a number of CA cities. (1) https://www.malwarebytes.com/blog/privacy/2026/02/flock-cameras-shared-license-plate-data-without-permission https://www.malwarebytes.com/blog/privacy/2026/02/flock-came...
    - toomuchtodo 2mo ago
      https://www.ilsos.gov/news/2025/august-25-2025-giannoulias-audit-finds-license-plate-reader-company-in-violation-of-state-law.html https://www.ilsos.gov/news/2025/august-25-2025-giannoulias-a... > Giannoulias’ Audit Finds License Plate Reader Company in Violation of Illinois State Law > Flock Safety Shared Illinois Data with U.S. Customs and Border Protection Secretary, Orders Flock to Shut off Data Access https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/10/flock-safety-and-texas-sheriff-claimed-license-plate-search-was-missing-person-it https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/10/flock-safety-and-texas... > Last May, 404 Media obtained data revealing the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office conducted a nationwide search of more than 83,000 Flock ALPR cameras, giving the reason in the search log: “had an abortion, search for female.” Both the Sheriff's Office and Flock Safety have attempted to downplay the search as akin to a search for a missing person, claiming deputies were only looking for the woman to “check on her welfare” and that officers found a large amount of blood at the scene – a claim now contradicted by the responding investigator’s affidavit. Flock Safety went so far as to assert that journalists and advocates covering the story intentionally misrepresented the facts, describing it as "misreporting" and "clickbait-driven." > Earlier this month, there was purposefully misleading reporting that a Texas police officer with the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office used LPR “to target people seeking reproductive healthcare.” This organization is actively perpetuating narratives that have been proven false, even after the record has been corrected. According to the Sheriff in Johnson County himself, this claim is unequivocally false. That sheriff has since been arrested and indicted on felony counts in an unrelated sexual harassment and whistleblower retaliation case. He has also been charged with aggravated perjury for allegedly lying to a grand jury. EFF filed public records requests with Johnson County to obtain a more definitive account of events.
Merad 2mo ago
Flock data can be accessed by cops nationwide who have different (or no) restrictions on data retention or privacy compared to local police.
- reactordev 2mo ago
  Flock data can be accessed by anyone. Literally. anyone. at anytime. Go see for yourselves. https://measuredcollective.com/flocks-ai-surveillance-cameras-were-wide-open-on-the-internet-heres-what-that-means/ https://measuredcollective.com/flocks-ai-surveillance-camera...
  - gruez 2mo ago
    That's a bit misleading given that it's a subset. 404media cites "at least 60".
    - reactordev 2mo ago
      https://www.kcrg.com/2025/12/24/cedar-rapids-police-cameras-among-dozens-exposed-unrestricted-access/ https://www.kcrg.com/2025/12/24/cedar-rapids-police-cameras-... https://www.9news.com/article/news/local/colorado-news/douglas-county-flock-cam-compromised-leaves-camera-exposed/73-b2a2ce04-ccd5-47e0-a9e1-d64d39855886 https://www.9news.com/article/news/local/colorado-news/dougl... https://www.wabe.org/cobb-county-youtuber-documents-flock-camera-vulnerabilities/ https://www.wabe.org/cobb-county-youtuber-documents-flock-ca... https://www.wflx.com/2026/01/09/flock-safety-exposed-live-police-camera-feeds-internet-data-breach-company-says/ https://www.wflx.com/2026/01/09/flock-safety-exposed-live-po... https://www.thegazette.com/news/vendor-error-exposed-some-cedar-rapids-police-cameras/article_52abd47d-cc0f-55ea-bc2e-31c8aacfbed5.html https://www.thegazette.com/news/vendor-error-exposed-some-ce... https://www.404media.co/flock-leaked-cops-license-plate-searches-via-duckduckgo-bing/ https://www.404media.co/flock-leaked-cops-license-plate-sear... https://www.aclu.org/news/privacy-technology/tracking-alpr-cameras/flock-safety-credibility-lost-as-it-repeatedly-lies-to-city-councils-police-departments-and-public-across-the-country https://www.aclu.org/news/privacy-technology/tracking-alpr-c... The list is pretty endless.
whatisthiseven 2mo ago
Flock has been known to lie and there isn't any reason to believe they are telling the truth. Why would they? There isn't some duty for them to tell the truth in an article. Trying to parse what that sentence means is useless. It isnt designed to mean anything. Their various mouth pieces have claimed every manner of excuse. Semantic games are for everyone else to play and lose. Corporations always win.
culi 2mo ago
> I assume this means that the police department deletes one local copy? Ben Jordan got ahold of one of them and proved that they even had footage from the f'n factory they were made in! Flock is lying to cities and/or cities are lying to us
GolfPopper 2mo ago
Police used Flock's license plate network to stalk women in at least 50 cases https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/police-used-flocks-license-plate-network-to-stalk-women-in-at-least-50-cases/ar-AA29nfUh https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/police-used-flocks-lice...
- stackghost 2mo ago
  Police officers are also statistically more likely to abuse their spouses. Don't let the women you care about get involved with cops.
  - moate 2mo ago
    Since people seem to be disagreeing with a fact: https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/etd/1862/ https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/etd/1862/ https://academic.oup.com/policing/article-abstract/6/4/418/1460221?redirectedFrom=fulltext&login=false https://academic.oup.com/policing/article-abstract/6/4/418/1... https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1359178916301331?via%3Dihub https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S13591...
  - f6v 2mo ago
    > Don't let the women you care about get involved with cops. I don't see any difference between what you just said and "13-85".
    - john_strinlai 2mo ago
      >and "13-85". what does this specific lingo mean? normal searches and ai are both as confused as i am
      - dessimus 2mo ago
        I'm going to assume that commenter is referring to 'black crime rates' claiming that they make up 13% of the population while claiming that 85% of crime or some segment like violent crime is committed by them.
mlfreeman 2mo ago
Eventually the copy in the officer's browser's cache expires...I figure that's what they mean.
alwa 2mo ago
> raise concerns about data being shared with third-party companies or federal agencies. What, you don’t like “sharing”? It would be selfish not to “share”! Truly the move from “send copies to” to “share” is one of the great linguistic dirty tricks the social-media-era firms have pulled. Especially here, where what’s being “shared” is, in a meaningful sense, operational control and enforcement prerogative. And don’t get me started on the minimizing formulation “third-party companies and federal agencies”…

ibejoeb 2mo ago

That whole paragraph is like a paid placement. > Flock Safety cameras are automated license plate readers Like Ring is a door chime.

gowld 2mo ago

No, Flock plays a semantic game where data on Flock's servers os "owned" by the client, so Flock is not responsible for the content or management of the data.

skybrian 2mo ago
Isn't that what you'd expect from a camera service provider? I'd certainly want any videos taken by my own cameras to be owned by me.
- ButlerianJihad 2mo ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monkey_selfie_copyright_dispute https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monkey_selfie_copyright_disput...
  - Terr_ 2mo ago
    I don't see how that relates to any of this. If I record a video of a crowd in public, under US law I have copyright to that video. The crowd isn't creating the record, I am. The issue of which group (Flock/police/city) has the real copyright versus an expensive license is interesting to contemplate, but that list doesn't include monkey-agency either.
- eli 2mo ago
  I'm not familiar with North Dakota in particular, but at the federal level and in some states ALL works created by the government are exempt from copyright. The public paid for it, so the public owns it.

mapotofu 2mo ago

> deletes one local copy. I think you’re being a little too generous here.

advisedwang 2mo ago

> Camera data is owned by the police department and permanently deleted after 30 days There's so much going on in that sentence! What a thing of pure PR beauty. What does "owned" mean in this sentence? Probably fairly little. What data does it even refer to? Just the actual video footage? Does the statement include derived data like license plate reads or ML models? And surely if data is flagged as relevant to an investigation it is not deleted, so is there an implicit "*unless retained"?

rconti 2mo ago
You know, unless they get a national security letter, or change their TOS, or....
- duped 2mo ago
  Or their app was configured to let other LE agencies access it without their knowledge in violation of state law (1). Only linked one case but afaik it happened in a number of CA cities. (1) https://www.malwarebytes.com/blog/privacy/2026/02/flock-cameras-shared-license-plate-data-without-permission https://www.malwarebytes.com/blog/privacy/2026/02/flock-came...
  - toomuchtodo 2mo ago
    https://www.ilsos.gov/news/2025/august-25-2025-giannoulias-audit-finds-license-plate-reader-company-in-violation-of-state-law.html https://www.ilsos.gov/news/2025/august-25-2025-giannoulias-a... > Giannoulias’ Audit Finds License Plate Reader Company in Violation of Illinois State Law > Flock Safety Shared Illinois Data with U.S. Customs and Border Protection Secretary, Orders Flock to Shut off Data Access https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/10/flock-safety-and-texas-sheriff-claimed-license-plate-search-was-missing-person-it https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/10/flock-safety-and-texas... > Last May, 404 Media obtained data revealing the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office conducted a nationwide search of more than 83,000 Flock ALPR cameras, giving the reason in the search log: “had an abortion, search for female.” Both the Sheriff's Office and Flock Safety have attempted to downplay the search as akin to a search for a missing person, claiming deputies were only looking for the woman to “check on her welfare” and that officers found a large amount of blood at the scene – a claim now contradicted by the responding investigator’s affidavit. Flock Safety went so far as to assert that journalists and advocates covering the story intentionally misrepresented the facts, describing it as "misreporting" and "clickbait-driven." > Earlier this month, there was purposefully misleading reporting that a Texas police officer with the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office used LPR “to target people seeking reproductive healthcare.” This organization is actively perpetuating narratives that have been proven false, even after the record has been corrected. According to the Sheriff in Johnson County himself, this claim is unequivocally false. That sheriff has since been arrested and indicted on felony counts in an unrelated sexual harassment and whistleblower retaliation case. He has also been charged with aggravated perjury for allegedly lying to a grand jury. EFF filed public records requests with Johnson County to obtain a more definitive account of events.

Merad 2mo ago

Flock data can be accessed by cops nationwide who have different (or no) restrictions on data retention or privacy compared to local police.

reactordev 2mo ago
Flock data can be accessed by anyone. Literally. anyone. at anytime. Go see for yourselves. https://measuredcollective.com/flocks-ai-surveillance-cameras-were-wide-open-on-the-internet-heres-what-that-means/ https://measuredcollective.com/flocks-ai-surveillance-camera...
- gruez 2mo ago
  That's a bit misleading given that it's a subset. 404media cites "at least 60".
  - reactordev 2mo ago
    https://www.kcrg.com/2025/12/24/cedar-rapids-police-cameras-among-dozens-exposed-unrestricted-access/ https://www.kcrg.com/2025/12/24/cedar-rapids-police-cameras-... https://www.9news.com/article/news/local/colorado-news/douglas-county-flock-cam-compromised-leaves-camera-exposed/73-b2a2ce04-ccd5-47e0-a9e1-d64d39855886 https://www.9news.com/article/news/local/colorado-news/dougl... https://www.wabe.org/cobb-county-youtuber-documents-flock-camera-vulnerabilities/ https://www.wabe.org/cobb-county-youtuber-documents-flock-ca... https://www.wflx.com/2026/01/09/flock-safety-exposed-live-police-camera-feeds-internet-data-breach-company-says/ https://www.wflx.com/2026/01/09/flock-safety-exposed-live-po... https://www.thegazette.com/news/vendor-error-exposed-some-cedar-rapids-police-cameras/article_52abd47d-cc0f-55ea-bc2e-31c8aacfbed5.html https://www.thegazette.com/news/vendor-error-exposed-some-ce... https://www.404media.co/flock-leaked-cops-license-plate-searches-via-duckduckgo-bing/ https://www.404media.co/flock-leaked-cops-license-plate-sear... https://www.aclu.org/news/privacy-technology/tracking-alpr-cameras/flock-safety-credibility-lost-as-it-repeatedly-lies-to-city-councils-police-departments-and-public-across-the-country https://www.aclu.org/news/privacy-technology/tracking-alpr-c... The list is pretty endless.

whatisthiseven 2mo ago

Flock has been known to lie and there isn't any reason to believe they are telling the truth. Why would they? There isn't some duty for them to tell the truth in an article. Trying to parse what that sentence means is useless. It isnt designed to mean anything. Their various mouth pieces have claimed every manner of excuse. Semantic games are for everyone else to play and lose. Corporations always win.

culi 2mo ago

> I assume this means that the police department deletes one local copy? Ben Jordan got ahold of one of them and proved that they even had footage from the f'n factory they were made in! Flock is lying to cities and/or cities are lying to us

GolfPopper 2mo ago

Police used Flock's license plate network to stalk women in at least 50 cases https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/police-used-flocks-license-plate-network-to-stalk-women-in-at-least-50-cases/ar-AA29nfUh https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/police-used-flocks-lice...

stackghost 2mo ago
Police officers are also statistically more likely to abuse their spouses. Don't let the women you care about get involved with cops.
- moate 2mo ago
  Since people seem to be disagreeing with a fact: https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/etd/1862/ https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/etd/1862/ https://academic.oup.com/policing/article-abstract/6/4/418/1460221?redirectedFrom=fulltext&login=false https://academic.oup.com/policing/article-abstract/6/4/418/1... https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1359178916301331?via%3Dihub https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S13591...
- f6v 2mo ago
  > Don't let the women you care about get involved with cops. I don't see any difference between what you just said and "13-85".
  - john_strinlai 2mo ago
    >and "13-85". what does this specific lingo mean? normal searches and ai are both as confused as i am
    - dessimus 2mo ago
      I'm going to assume that commenter is referring to 'black crime rates' claiming that they make up 13% of the population while claiming that 85% of crime or some segment like violent crime is committed by them.

mlfreeman 2mo ago

Eventually the copy in the officer's browser's cache expires...I figure that's what they mean.

alwa 2mo ago

> raise concerns about data being shared with third-party companies or federal agencies. What, you don’t like “sharing”? It would be selfish not to “share”! Truly the move from “send copies to” to “share” is one of the great linguistic dirty tricks the social-media-era firms have pulled. Especially here, where what’s being “shared” is, in a meaningful sense, operational control and enforcement prerogative. And don’t get me started on the minimizing formulation “third-party companies and federal agencies”…