Cops Are Giving Complete Nonsense Reasons to Search Thousands of Flock Cameras
They're treating mass surveillance like a joke. The post Cops Are Giving Complete Nonsense Reasons to Search Thousands of Flock Cameras appeared first on Futurism .
Police departments are using Flock cameras to conduct searches with nonsensical or humorous reasons, according to an investigation by the Electric Frontier Foundation (EFF). One Lake County, Indiana, sheriff's deputy entered "LMAO" to search over 19,000 cameras in 1,500 locations. The EFF's report, featured in 404 Media, found that police officers frequently used childish responses such as "LOL," "Hehe," and "IDK," or nonsense entries like "ghjhghjg" to scan thousands of cameras.
Many officers simply wrote vague phrases like "investigation," "test," or left cryptic messages like "robbery I don't remember the case number." A few police officers even used sarcastic remarks, such as "f*** this new search engine." Despite the EFF's findings and contacting the departments, few disciplinary actions were taken.
Flock's software was adjusted to make it difficult for officers to input their own reasons, replacing it with pre-selected options. The EFF criticized this change for reducing transparency, stating that it allows police to abuse the surveillance network for trivial reasons or personal amusement.
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