US cities are axing Flock Safety surveillance technology

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Overall sentiment toward Flock and ALPR systems

  • Strongly negative overall; many see Flock as “panopticon-as-a-service” and part of a broader surveillance-state drift.
  • Minority of commenters are comfortable with ALPRs, red‑light and speed cameras, especially amid perceived “rampant crime,” but even some of them distrust Flock as a company.

Effectiveness and crime statistics

  • San Francisco is cited as claiming big reductions in car break‑ins and burglaries due to Flock, but several commenters scrutinize open police data and charts and argue:
    • Major drops predate Flock’s 2024 rollout window.
    • Post‑COVID crime trends are falling broadly, with or without Flock.
  • Others note meta‑analyses (via ACLU material) that CCTV has little impact on crime overall, especially violent crime.
  • Some argue cameras can help with specific use cases (stolen cars, serial thieves, serious cases like serial killers), but that this is not the same as broad crime reduction.

Civil liberties, legality, and precedent

  • Deep concern about constant tracking of movements, framed as a Fourth Amendment and free‑movement issue; debates over whether license plate display is compelled “speech.”
  • Multiple references to court cases on cell‑site tracking and GPS monitoring; view that mass, long‑term vehicle tracking could cross constitutional lines, even if courts haven’t fully caught up.
  • Worries that Flock’s “customer‑owned data” claim is undermined by a national lookup network accessible to thousands of agencies.

Errors, abuse, and disparate impact

  • Reports of Flock misreads leading to innocent people stopped at gunpoint, jailed, or bitten by police dogs.
  • Fears of biased deployment in poorer neighborhoods and use for dragnet policing, parallel construction, and targeting activists or minorities.
  • Some see a pattern of “coddling” certain offenders vs over‑policing others; others argue the US already incarcerates heavily.

Drones and integrated surveillance platforms

  • New “drone as first responder” product is called out as especially concerning: fast, mobile tracking in response to 911 calls and other triggers.
  • Some see drones as a reasonable reconnaissance/EMS aid; others see them as a movable mass‑surveillance layer likely to creep from emergencies to routine neighborhood monitoring.

Politics, vendors, and resistance

  • Cities dropping Flock often move to competitors like Axon, which integrates many camera sources; characterized as “out of the frying pan.”
  • Commenters highlight local organizing (EFF, town halls, YouTube advocacy) and also mention direct action (vandalizing or disabling cameras).
  • Broader critique: cameras are an easy bureaucratic “do something” response that doesn’t address root causes like homelessness, addiction, or underfunded services.