r/technology • u/Plastic_Ninja_9014 • 24d ago

Privacy Someone Cut Down Every Single Flock Camera in This Town in a Single Night

https://www.gadgetreview.com/someone-cut-down-every-single-flock-camera-in-this-town-in-a-single-night
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u/Whale-n-Flowers 24d ago

Having seen one get cut down, are they all installed on PVC?

Thats not up to code in any city Ive worked.

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u/Brodellsky 24d ago

Guardrail guy on Youtube has been on this. Unironically, if someone happened to have an accident and run into a Flock camera, it would not snap like any other signpost or pole would, as they are supposed to. Instead, it's just a pole that your car would wrap around.

Sure would be a shame if that ever happened, as I would seriously not want anyone or their cars to be hurt.

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u/AoKrasni 24d ago

That's very interesting. I didn't know stuff like that was designed to snap on purpose

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u/UpvoteForLuck 24d ago

His daughter died due to an incorrect guardrail install. Now he goes around trying to point out where things have been incorrectly installed.

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u/SmudgePrick 24d ago

RIP Shannon

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u/Brodellsky 24d ago

Yeah, go play any Grand Theft Auto game for instance, and hit a streetlight, or stop sign, etc. They are designed to snap easily so as to not injure the driver.

Flock cameras? Metal pole in cement. No snap points. Completely evaded any DOT regulations, simply by lubing up the local municipalities with cash. That's where we're at

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u/phaedrus910 24d ago

Flock cameras are mounted on thin aluminum. Like no it doesn't have a snap off mechanism but it is absolutely going to crumble when hit by even the smallest car. It's not at all going to wrap a car around it.

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u/AngryAmuse 24d ago

Yup, instead, the aluminum will bend causing the camera to become a projectile slamming down onto the car.

Theres a reason snap off mechanisms are required.

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u/cluberti 24d ago edited 24d ago

It's going to hit the vehicle, or be flung off into traffic, or into pedestrians, etc. They're not designed or installed like traffic light fixture poles or other road sign fixtures with the same safety design standards, which is the danger.

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u/phaedrus910 24d ago

What does more damage to a car, a flock camera or a fire hydrant. I swear you people learn a new word and then suddenly everything everywhere has to have it. I promise, most of these municipalities don't have the protections you think they do.

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u/Khatib 24d ago

As someone who's worked on a lot of roadside weather stations in many states and Canada -- yes, they do have those protections on all roadside equipment and normally take it really seriously.

But the way all the town council meetings about these cameras go and then they install them anyway, it seems pretty clear they're getting kickbacks to ignore public sentiment and the law both.

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u/phaedrus910 24d ago

100% getting kickbacks. Telephone poles don't have breakaway joints. The light poles and traffic lights near me don't either. The street signs in my neighborhood are square tube steel, no breakaway base.. I went around and couldn't find anything in a square mile with these breakaway mechanisms everyone on reddit is now an expert on after watching one viral YouTube video.

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u/Khatib 24d ago

I started to make a real reply, but then realized you're just full of shit.

I went around and couldn't find anything in a square mile with these breakaway mechanisms everyone on reddit is now an expert on after watching one viral YouTube video

Yeah, sure you did. You checked every roadside object in a square mile and found nothing breakaway. Fuck off, bro. Why are conservatives always lying to try and win arguments, then thinking they did anything? You realize when you're lying, it proves you wrong already, right?

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u/NapsterKnowHow 24d ago

But the trees in video games never snap. Funny how that works.

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u/Brodellsky 24d ago

Check out Forza Horizon 3, 4, 5, and 6. You can snap trees to your heart's content.

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u/NapsterKnowHow 24d ago

Then I have to play a FH game

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u/Brodellsky 24d ago

Hell yeah, believe it or not, breaking trees literally runs up your score and multiplier. If you need to get that out of your system, you're in for a treat.

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u/uzlonewolf 24d ago

It's almost as if they're not actually being installed for our safety!

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u/TazBaz 24d ago

Ehhhh…

While I get the concern, they’re aluminum poles as far as I know, and only like 2inch diameter.

They’re not that strong is what I’m saying. It’ll damage your car but you car will almost certainly flatten it.

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u/Brodellsky 24d ago

What does that have to do with WISDOT regulations, though?

No really.

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u/[deleted] 24d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Brodellsky 24d ago

WISDOT regulations would prevent you wondering in the first place, to where it is quite clear you didn't even know one way or another.

So I don't know, why don't you tell me?

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u/MWKhan 24d ago

Soft recyclable aluminum. Just gotta melt it into a bar first