3 ms·

> Not that the act of calmly dissasembling something couldn't be indicted as potentially criminal (if a ham sandwich can be) Why do you doubt this? If I calmly

by KPGv2 2mo ago

> Not that the act of calmly dissasembling something couldn't be indicted as potentially criminal (if a ham sandwich can be) Why do you doubt this? If I calmly disassemble your car in the middle of the night, haven't I committed a crime? Where I live, calmly disassembling property that is't yours is, at minimum, vandalism: https://codes.findlaw.com/tx/penal-code/penal-sect-28-03/ https://codes.findlaw.com/tx/penal-code/penal-sect-28-03/ > A person commits an offense if, without the effective consent of the owner . . . he intentionally or knowingly tampers with the tangible property of the owner and causes . . . substantial inconvenience to the owner or a third person . . . . My guess is the cost to remedy this disassembly is over $2,500, making this a felony. Even if not, if a government Flock camera is considered a "public service" then it's a felony no matter the cost to remedy because it falls under "causes wholly or partly impairment or interruption of property used for . . . public communications, public transportation, [] or other public service . . ."

bee_rider 2mo ago
Putting aside this specific case, I wonder how that $2,500 cost is calculated? Flock owns the devices and leases them out I think. Hypothetically somebody could take the device down and put it in a nice tidy little box for them. Then the cost to remedy is… how much they charge the town to send a person out to put it back up? Or how much it costs them internally to send somebody out to put it back up? If it is the latter, I guess it must just be somebody’s travel costs and wages (could be figured out like any contractor). If it is the former, does that have to be the same cost they always charge to send out maintenance people? (Since a disassembled, not destroyed camera should be one of the cheapest issues to deal with, right?). Otherwise it seems like they could exploit the law by specifically “charging” enough to make it a felony whenever they suspect tampering.
- KPGv2 2mo ago
  Municipal sign installation is a decent floor approximation. Can run into the thousands if it's electrified (think: blinking lights on a warning sign). Depends on availability of electricity, engineering, weather at that time, etc. In some places, a stop sign can be close to $2,000 based on some quick googling, and that has no power supply to worry about. It's always more expensive than residential bc it's publicly reachable by a million morons, and is meant to stand much longer than residential work.

by KPGv2 2mo ago

bee_rider 2mo ago

Putting aside this specific case, I wonder how that $2,500 cost is calculated? Flock owns the devices and leases them out I think. Hypothetically somebody could take the device down and put it in a nice tidy little box for them. Then the cost to remedy is… how much they charge the town to send a person out to put it back up? Or how much it costs them internally to send somebody out to put it back up? If it is the latter, I guess it must just be somebody’s travel costs and wages (could be figured out like any contractor). If it is the former, does that have to be the same cost they always charge to send out maintenance people? (Since a disassembled, not destroyed camera should be one of the cheapest issues to deal with, right?). Otherwise it seems like they could exploit the law by specifically “charging” enough to make it a felony whenever they suspect tampering.

KPGv2 2mo ago
Municipal sign installation is a decent floor approximation. Can run into the thousands if it's electrified (think: blinking lights on a warning sign). Depends on availability of electricity, engineering, weather at that time, etc. In some places, a stop sign can be close to $2,000 based on some quick googling, and that has no power supply to worry about. It's always more expensive than residential bc it's publicly reachable by a million morons, and is meant to stand much longer than residential work.