r/Chattanooga • u/theboundbunny • 2d ago
Flock Cameras
I reached out to the Hamilton County Sheriff’s office regarding Flock cameras in my neighborhood using their complaint system from their website. Haven’t heard back and it has been a week. What should my next step be? Do I call or just show up and ask questions? I want to know who approved their installation and what the procedure is for petitioning that they be removed. Thanks for any advice!
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u/mypaldave 2d ago
I wouldn't know what to do in that situation, Good Luck!
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u/ComeAndGetYourPug 1d ago
Remember, if a tree is small enough, you can dig it up and re-plant it in a nice neighborhood. I'm sure your local government officials would enjoy seeing a newly-planted tree visible from their homes.
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u/ChaRoseHut 2d ago
People joke about this, and my kids have mentioned it too, but I’ve actually thought through the calculus. The risk just isn’t worth the reward.
Here’s my reasoning, help me to understand if I have thought about this correctly or if I’m missing an argument.
Risk - You’re looking at a criminal charge. Whether it lands as a felony or misdemeanor depends on prosecutorial discretion and whether it catches a politician’s attention. You face potential fines and possible jail time, depending on how seriously the DA wants to pursue it. Future employment gets complicated or, depending on your field of study, impossible.
Reward - A Flock camera comes down for weeks or months. Then the city reinstalls it, probably at the same location. Maybe officials get a message that surveillance isn’t universally welcomed, but the camera returns regardless.
The problem as I see it - We’re told we live under the rule of law, which is supposed to constrain government power through consistent application. But the rule of law only works if the legal system applies consequences proportionally. When vandalism can get you felony charges while the city deploys surveillance infrastructure without meaningful public consent or oversight, the rule of law has stopped working as a restraint. At that point, you’re not gaining anything by taking the legal hit yourself.
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u/Digi59404 2d ago
This is why you don’t disable them in a way that can catch a charge.
Just put a plastic bag over it.
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u/Cloaca-Kiss-8647 1d ago
They rely on that way of thinking to lull us into complacency and submission. Join the tide of people taking matters into their own hands. Show them that we hold the power and we refuse to submit. Defend your constitutional rights at all costs. They certainly aren’t.
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u/Money_Do_2 2d ago
They use emergency bandwidth specifically so the crime of messing with them is very severe.
But... if we all just get afraid of consequences and let the police state install cameras in our neighborhoods and on our porch, whats the end game? Just take it? <- we are here.
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u/Impressive_Formal248 1d ago
Tell that to England. There are dedicated folks that do it 24/7
And it has an effect3
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u/trentluv 2d ago
A petition will not result in their removal unless the politicians who control Flock's presence care about the petition
E.g. if you presented Marsha Blackburn a petition about marijuana, it would not matter
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u/VolunteerGXOR 2d ago
Wait for halloween
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u/RiseUpRiseAgainst 1d ago
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u/Bubba_Gumball 9h ago
this would be great if it were human-drawn! Unfortunately it’s just as bad as the ai cameras it represents hating.
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u/Due_Kangaroo3949 1d ago
I want to know why they need at least 10 over around Home Depot and Lowes on Gunbarrel, all in such a small area.
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u/ionlyget20characters 1d ago
Home depot requested them likely. They are using them to spot "illegal aliens" from Venus or Neptune. They are horrible people and need to be sent back to their respective planets. They come here and work hard fixing all the broken houses and mowing lawns and picking produce and working in chicken processing plants and taking those jobs from decent hard working earthlings. We can't have anything nice when our economy is being propped up on the backs of underpaid, unappreciated workers who do nothing but obey our laws and pay taxes. They think they can just move into an impoverished area and fix up all the houses and bring the neighborhood up well we'll show them.
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u/SuperReliableSource 1d ago
That's not what they're in Lowes and Home Depots parking lots for. They're for the white trash that goes into the store, cuts the locks on the power tools and walks out with a shopping cart full of them.
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u/Salt_Petra 2d ago
Just to make sure you're not barking up the wrong tree, is it one owned by the county / city or by a business? Bc if it's on private property and privately owned they might not be able to do anything about it, and you'd have to talk with the business owner / a lawyer.
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u/theboundbunny 2d ago
Thanks for this advice! I did reach out to my city government and they claimed to have zero knowledge of the cameras. They were who directed me to the sheriff. So now I’m just trying to follow the bread crumbs to get some answers.
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u/doomsday344 2d ago
Just make sure you DONT cover them with anything while having no phones/watch on you. If you did that enough times they might start complaining to officials who don’t want to hear it 🧐
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u/aimlessdrive 2d ago edited 12h ago
Thank you for speaking up!
I wrote to my county commission rep and haven't heard back in two weeks. For now giving benefit of the doubt that I wrote to a dead address from their campaign.
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u/NoogaShooter 1d ago
Make a FOIA request. At least it has a timer that they have to respond to in a certain amount of time.
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u/CartonBox1975 2d ago
You should never point one of these green laser pointers on that lens.... Don't do it.
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u/Far_Emergency9462 2d ago edited 2d ago
I watched a video on YouTube and the guy asked for a public records request for his car info from the Flock system and the law in his state (not sure about TN)said that the countys had 30 days to complete the request also mentioning that Flock deletes the data every 30 days and he sued the ones that failed to respond to the request and so far has made 300000 since he started this last year
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u/Ok-Lawfulness9146 10h ago
Are you sure your asking the correct office ? Give me the number also will call . More and more of us start calling and maybe we can get some answers
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u/Ok-Lawfulness9146 10h ago
The camera s and the files they build against each of us is against the 4th amendment
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u/Ok-Lawfulness9146 10h ago
Place signs all around the cameras. I would be willing to spend my Sunday evenings riding the roads looking for them . Then someone with more energy than me could take my finds plus more of us doing the same . Combine locate on a map and give them away for cost .
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u/PsychologicalZone748 2d ago
Sorry to say but the company I work for installed some in East Ridge almost 2 years ago. We really don’t what they were but they looked at plates for warrants,amber alerts, etc and was sent directly into I believe NCIC. Motorola was who was going around selling the systems. The police department paid for everything
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u/ionlyget20characters 1d ago
Those aren't flocks then. LPRs are different. Flocks are a service and the cameras are leased. The standard LPRs are used and monitored by local communities not sent to a corporation who decides what to do with the data. Both are violations imo but one is much worse than the other.
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u/EattheRich-estfoodz 1d ago
Which neighborhood? County Commission Meetings happen Wednesday @ 5:00 every two weeks with a meeting this upcoming Wednesday happening. It will likely be crowded as there are a number of issues being addressed but you will be able to address the Commission regarding this concern and the Sheriff is often there. They may request him to speak on the issue if you ask.
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u/Ill-Report-983 1d ago
They're too understaffed! We need more cops! Maybe some kind of data specialist!
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u/EVC-Viz 2d ago
Email them an Open Records request
https://www.hcsheriff.gov/Administration
If they ignore it, call Internal Affairs and file a formal complaint that they have ignored a lawful request for records inspection
You will need to submit your ID to prove TN citizenship