Flock Safety, the police technology company most notable for their extensive network of automated license plate readers spread throughout the United States, is rolling out a new and troubling product that may create headaches for the cities that adopt it: detection of “human distress” via audio. As...

Flock Safety, the police technology company most notable for their extensive network of automated license plate readers spread throughout the United States, is rolling out a new and troubling product that may create headaches for the cities that adopt it: detection of “human distress” via audio. As part of their suite of technologies, Flock has been pushing Raven, their version of acoustic gunshot detection. These devices capture sounds in public places and use machine learning to try to identify gunshots and then alert police—but EFF has long warned that they are also high powered microphones parked above densely-populated city streets. Cities now have one more reason to follow the lead of many other municipalities and cancel their Flock contracts, before this new feature causes civil liberties harms to residents and headaches for cities.

    • neomachino@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      4·
      1 day ago

      Thanks for this, I’m pretty sure I’ve seen these in a few spots around my area but I don’t see any on the map. I’ll check next time I go out.

    • irelephant [he/him]@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      1·
      1 day ago

      They don’t seem to be much of a thing in Ireland yet (unless people just aren’t reporting them). There’s 3 in Dublin, all of which are in an industrial park, and the rest (66 of them) are in Northern Ireland.

      • swampdownloader@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        6·
        2 days ago

        They have solar panels and once you know what to look for they’re quite apparent. Typically on every major route in/out of your town along the edge bordering adjacent towns.

    • shalafi@lemmy.worldEnglish
      66·
      2 days ago

      And DESTROY them. I’ve been mulling pulling up behind them on the interstate, parking, popping them off with a 12-gauge, rolling on with an obfuscated license plate. Pull over in a few miles, remove the magnet. Single shot through the engine block!

      But most of you libs aren’t armed, can’t lift a shotgun, “I might get in trouble!” At what point do you actually fight back? This seems an easy point of entry?