Replacing one system of surveillance with another isn't a win. And the system some cities are replacing their Flock cameras with could be even more intrusive.

There’s been a great deal of backlash against Flock cameras, with constant vandalism and numerous reports of crooked cops misusing them, leading to more and more communities to cancel their contracts. While Flock has received the most backlash, there are other ALPR companies out there. Rather than ending their use of technology that spies on you, and in a move that doesn’t really solve the problems associated with mass surveillance, some departments that have dropped Flock have simply switched to other companies that do the same thing, reports NPR.

One of those competitors is Axon. If that name sounds familiar, it’s probably because you’ve seen it displayed on body cam videos, since Axon is the leading supplier of body cams to law enforcement, according to The Intercept. After a bit of rebranding in 2017 (the same year Flock was founded), many people don’t know that Axon is the company formerly known as Taser, the electrical stun gun — another technology that police never, ever misuse.

While Flock had to develop not only its technology, but also its law enforcement contacts and clients, Axon already had the clients in its Rolodex thanks to its other products. Law enforcement agencies may be fleeing from Flock contracts like rats from a sinking ship, but they still want ALPR technology. In places like Denver, Colorado, for example, switching ALPR providers is easy when you’re getting your new camera tracking access through a supplier you likely already do business with.

  • MrOtingocni@lemmy.world
    1·
    9 hours ago

    You’re not wrong. America is just about as imperialist as they come in the modern sense. The bulk of the ‘glorious history’ of Americanism is simply being in the right place at the right time in world development and a whole lot of Hollywood. It’s been bullshit from the very beginning. The same as any large and expanding country since the beginning of time.

    That said, there are only two options for humans, sit down in defeat, weighed under the crushing conformity of tradition. Or set a new course and brave the inertia and violent established interests.

    You and I are more alike than we are to our respective leaders. Thus, the common man must join forces with all neighbors to climb on the back of our wolves and hold on tightly by the ears. A government unchecked by its people is a dangerous and rampaging beast. It’s our responsibility to hold our governments to higher standards. By force if necessary, but it must also come by working through and changing the system wherever possible.