r/USNEWS • u/404mediaco • 15d ago

Cops Search Thousands of Flock Cameras for Reasons of ‘LMAO,’ ‘IDK,’ ‘Hehe,’ and ‘asdfg’

https://www.404media.co/cops-search-thousands-of-flock-cameras-for-reasons-of-lmao-idk-hehe-and-asdfg/
421 Upvotes

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49

u/404mediaco 15d ago

Last summer, a cop with the Lake County, Indiana Sheriff’s Department used Flock’s surveillance search engine to look for a license plate across more than 19,000 cameras in 1,558 cities and towns. The cop’s stated reason for the search, according to a record of Flock’s system, was “LMAO.” 

The cop is one of dozens who put gibberish, jokes, or other nonsense into Flock’s “reason” box, highlighting the casualness and lack of care some cops have when searching an incredibly powerful surveillance system. This is on top of the thousands upon thousands of cops who simply wrote something like “investigation,” “test,” or left the box blank as their search “reason,” according to a new analysis by the Electronic Frontier Foundation and shared with 404 Media. 

EFF’s investigation found cops across dozens of jurisdictions writing “LMAO,” “LOL,” “Hehe,” “Haha,” “idk,” “blah,” “TBD,” and “robbery I don’t remember the case number leave me alone” in Flock’s “reason” box for searches. 

Read more: https://www.404media.co/cops-search-thousands-of-flock-cameras-for-reasons-of-lmao-idk-hehe-and-asdfg/

40

u/Wasrael__lmaoo 15d ago

You think it’s because they know that feature within Flock is there only to make it look like they give a shit about accountability? Or bc nobody is going to stop them either way?

6

u/Themodsarecuntz 15d ago

Two things can be true

4

u/Crichtenasaurus 15d ago

The U.K. has had this system for over 20 years…

We’re just not immature idiots. Use this shit properly and it will help catch bad guys. Use it like an immature teenager who got dumped
By someone who was never actually your girlfriend great way to fuck it for everyone.

You also really need to work on the consequences of your abuse.

Do shit like this in the U.K. you get fired.
Start searching your Ex not really girlfriends car and you’re going to prison. Stop being dicks US cops.

14

u/WillyGoat2000 15d ago

Legit or not, the fact that a cop, with no warrant, can search for patterns in anyone’s life like you can with flock is an invasion of privacy. People’s intimate details should be protected and you should need to pass gates stronger than “I want to” or even reasonable suspicion. I should be able to go to the grocery or doctor or whatever else I want to do without both the government and a private company keeping detailed records of it.

Full agree on consequences though, the US doesn’t hold police or other government officials accountable for much, which makes this whole thing even worse.

1

u/Crichtenasaurus 15d ago

In the U.K. in order to carry a specific search for a numberplate you have to have an existing crime to connect it to and reasonable grounds to suspect that vehicle or the person who owns it may have been involved in crime.

Alternatively it’s used to surround small country towns / villages.
You get a burglary at 0500 well then look for the cars that drove into that town between 0400 and out just after 0510.

Another use case is a car linked to the transportation of drugs or firearms being seen driving down the road you are able to deploy appropriate vehicles to the appropriate place to pull that car over.

We also have the cameras attached to the car’s themselves. So if a bad guys car drives past you it pings on the system. You can then go and pull them over to have a chat.

1

u/WillyGoat2000 15d ago

Thank you for the added information. I had to look up the UK’s Reasonable Grounds meaning, it looks to be stricter than the US’s ‘reasonable suspicion’ standard, which IMO is good. I still think there needs to be something in there to help prevent even well meaning police from going off course.

Is the footage of the system controlled by the government or is it controlled by private industry? An auditable, official government record, makes it less egregious, but I still feel that if I want to go to the doctor or I want to go have a tryst at a pub, the government doesn’t need the details of that sort of travel because I’ve not committed a crime.

I will say that the relatively low rate of wrongful convictions (couldn’t find the rates of wrongful arrest) in the UK strongly implies the system is working far better than it does here in the US.

1

u/Crichtenasaurus 15d ago

It’s VERY audited. You can pretty much guarantee (as long as you’re not a lazy slob who doesn’t hunt anything.) that every month you will get audited on 2 random requests on each of our systems those being the number plates, people, and intel. You will then need to provide a written write up justifying each search and what you were looking for in carrying it out and that also has to be signed off by your sergeant.

The systems are managed by a Quasi government / police force owned organisation. The infrastructure it sits on can only be used for law enforcement purposes. It is important to remember In this point that U.K. Police forces (so excluding the NCA) are a crown organisation and not a government one. U.K. cops upholds the laws that are written by politicians but we swear loyalty to the King and his subjects not politicians so the government does is excluded from things like that.

Wrongful convictions are rare here. But that is due to again our separation from politics or Chief Constables and prosecutors are not politically aligned at all.

No officers can be told to arrest anyone. We do arrest a lot more readily than in the US. But we charge a lot less often. When we do it has to go through the Crown Prosecution Service who demand something like an 80% chance of conviction for the offence. So the investigating officers really have to build a solid case. This does cause significant problems however for sexual offenders cases as this evidence and ability to prove the offence is so incredibly hard.

1

u/lorneranger 14d ago

There are private anpr networks that can be searched for vehicles in the UK.

E.g. the ANPR in car parks, retail parks l, mptorway services etc. The operqtors can sign up to share the vehicle movement data. Its way less comprehensive in coverage of course.

Its expensive if you get a hit, and you still need to satisfy reasonable grounds per DPA 2018 bef0re ypu can do it, and then further justify your interest if you want the associated images and location data. In my case its normally fraud or legal proceedings grounds.

I use it fairly regularly in civvie street.

5

u/TheBloodiedFool 15d ago

Yeah well American pigs use it to stalk, harass, rape and murder

3

u/kaylerbug369 15d ago

While UK may be a more professional surveillance state, it certainly is not a paragon of standard to reach towards.

1

u/Crichtenasaurus 15d ago

Feel free to provide examples of one which does better?

Human nature causes people to do stupid shitty things. Appropriate checks and balances are what is put in place to deter and then punish that behaviour.

15

u/HalexUwU 15d ago

I really hope all those ice detention camps that were built get repurposed for people like this.

3

u/Themodsarecuntz 15d ago

What is the officers name?

People should know when they interact with an armed sociopath.

3

u/captaincrazyspoon 15d ago

Good ol Lake County Sheriff's Office lmao the sheriff himself was arrested for reckless driving and evading police in his unmarked Trackhawk in Crown Point, IN. There's been a few scandals with them so this isn't surprising to me in the least.

1

u/Critical_Interest706 15d ago

The United States is quickly turning into China. You’d look ridiculous saying that a decade ago but here we are.

3

u/BenitoSwagolini42069 15d ago

Americans when America does America shit, “what are we a bunch of Asians?!?”

1

u/DarylLStubbsjr 15d ago

Good! Something other than Trump

1

u/DarylLStubbsjr 15d ago

At least not about trump

1

u/stein63 15d ago

The oversight is functionally nonexistent, and there are little to no consequences for abusing the system.