‘I don’t remember the case number leave me alone’: US cops ignore Flock camera oversight, probing nationwide surveillance network with bogus reasoning benedict.collins@futurenet.com (Benedict Collins) | usagoldmines.com

• US ANPR system is being used with spurious reasoning provided by cops
• Almost half of US citizens are opposed to Flock camera installations
• Hackers cracked open a Flock camera and used it to access million of photos and videos

The Flock camera surveillance system that has quickly spread across the US is being abused by cops, a new investigation by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has found.

In one example uncovered during the investigation, a cop in Lake County, Indiana, searched over 19,000 cameras with the official justification being “LMAO”.

“Police are routinely searching the Flock database without providing any legitimate justification, making a mockery of our civil liberties,” the EFF said.

“f*ck this new search engine”

In other examples uncovered by the EFF, cops were filling the justification box with expletives such as “idiot,” “sh*thead,” and “f*ck this new search engine”. Others saw the reasoning given as “Hehe,” “WEIRD KID,” and “robbery I don’t remember the case number leave me alone”.

The ‘reason’ box is one of the only oversights deployed on the US automated license plate reader (ALPR) network that makes up 82,413 cameras across the country. The ALPR network requires no warrant to use, but can be used to track almost any vehicle without giving a reason.

The Flock system specifically has already been the subject of controversy after it was revealed the network of cameras was being used by cops to track ex-romantic partners, as well as people just walking on the street.

If you would expect those who gave spurious reasons for the use of the system to be reprimanded, you’d be wrong. After EFF confronted numerous police departments about the bogus reasons, officers were “counseled” rather than disciplined. Another department missed the 90-day deadline to refer an officer to an internal investigation.

EFF also revealed that one officer who provided “blah” as the reason for usage was protected by his police department who said “the technology is not moving fast enough for him”.

Flock system abused by cops and hackers alike

A recent survey has found that almost half of Americans are opposed to the Flock camera network, with the city of Columbus, Ohio, pausing the use of its Flock camera network, alongside Florida and Texas cutting back on use of Flock systems.

But the issues for Flock don’t end there. After multiple denials directly from Flock it has been revealed that hackers stole the encryption key stored on a camera and used it to extract over 27,000 clips and 1.6 million images taken by the camera. To see the level of surveillance these cameras have, this data stolen was from just a single Flock camera with the imagery taken over a period of 21 days.

Mass domestic surveillance isn’t a new thing for the US, but it is certainly getting more innovative. AI company Anthropic had its contracts with the Pentagon dropped after the company refused to allow unrestricted access to its models for “mass domestic surveillance”.

Proponents of mass surveillance often argue that if you have nothing to hide, then you have nothing to fear, but many Americans who agree with this principle often forget just how invasive having nothing to hide is.