• CADmonkey@lemmy.worldEnglish
    6 hours

    Burned into my mind is the reaction to my rural town’s mayor when Flock was brought up:

    “Have you seen the stop signs around here? Do you think those cameras will last any longer?”

    Many of the local stop signs have at least one bullet hole in them. Armored mailboxes are commonplace. They want to put up something in the sticks that it isn’t morally ambiguous to destroy?

      • CADmonkey@lemmy.worldEnglish
        28 minutes

        They aren’t shooting at them. It used to be a popular thing for teenagers to whack mailboxes from moving cars using baseball bats or similar implements. It was a bigger problem ~20 years ago.

        Of course now you’re likely to break your hand/arm/bat if you try it. I’ve seen several methods used to prevent damage to mailboxes, including cages made from rebar, stacks of mobile home rims with a mailbox in the center, mailboxes made from drill pipe, the mailbox at my house is made from 1/4" thick steel plate and the post it is mounted to is a piece of I-beam. It’s bonkers. I think you could hit it with a semi truck and the truck would lose. I didn’t build it, it was there when I bought the house.

  • NewNewAugustEast@lemmy.zipEnglish
    6 hours

    Is a webpage a “tool”?

    I keep hearing from US friends that their best tool was getting involved and having Flock banned from their counties and cities.

    • MangoCats@feddit.itEnglish
      3 hours

      But, are they only banning Flock (which is a good step), or are they banning all ALPR installs? Can they even ban them on private property? A lot of what I see on deflock.org near me isn’t on the streets (though some is), most of them are actually looking at parking lots, many of big box stores like Lowes, random strip malls and shopping centers, a church…

  • Ep1cFac3pa1m@lemmy.worldEnglish
    23 hours

    I don’t want a tool to avoid Flock cameras. I want a tool that uses my Bluetooth to turn Flock cameras into bricks.

    • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.worldEnglish
      6 hours

      Need to figure out a small scale, cheap, EMP device that can be set off to fry the cameras and sensors, but nothing else that is around.

        • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.worldEnglish
          6 hours

          Agreed, though I would expect one to not be carrying anything that could be affected by such a device, whilst deploying said devices. So personal devices don’t count as needing protection AFAIC

    • OwOarchist@pawb.socialEnglish
      22 hours

      If you want a tool that turns Flock cameras into bricks, all you need is a brick.

      … Or wire cutters, or a big hammer, or an angle grinder, or a drill, or a large rock, or a can of spray paint, etc, etc, etc. They’re not terribly resilient against physical damage.

      • JohnEdwa@sopuli.xyzEnglish
        22 hours

        I’ve been thinking of buying a slingshot and some paintballs. For another, completely irrelevant purpose though, obviously.

        • OwOarchist@pawb.socialEnglish
          22 hours

          Remember to mask up when you’re going out playing with paintballs – for covid safety! Wear sunglasses, too – you don’t want eye damage from the bright sunlight.

          Oh, and perhaps most importantly, leave your phone at home. Wouldn’t want to accidentally hit your phone with a paintball, would you?

        • flandish@lemmy.worldEnglish
          21 hours

          problem is the camera sees you offing it. unless you bloc up way away, and not near your own stuff.

    • wildflower@lemmy.worldEnglish
      15 hours

      I would think that a simple laser-pointer pointed at the camera would be enough to damage the sensor?

      • modus@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3 hours

        You’ll need around a 1-watt green (532nm) laser pointer. That’s gonna run you about $500 and they’re kinda dangerous.

  • adarza@piefed.caEnglish
    22 hours

    just walking a mile down a road i haven’t been down in years, i spotted two of them. there’s been absolutely no local coverage about it… and scanning local municipal and town meeting minutes for the last several years–not one mention of them.

    • JelloBrains@piefed.zipEnglish
      21 hours

      They have a whole division for pushing HOA’s to partner with them and “keep the places you call home safe.” So it’s not even just Governments you need to wonder about, HOA’s can just install them. So if you can’t find anything in Government documents, it’s entirely possible a nearby HOA did it.

      Flock Safety’s HOA security cameras help deter and solve crime, protect residents, and build trust with 24/7 tech that works with law enforcement to keep your neighborhood safe and connected.

      Optional law enforcement access gives your board confidence with faster response times and alerts for known threats—while keeping full control in your community’s hands

      Flock Safety’s solar-powered, LTE-connected neighborhood camera solutions install anywhere—no wiring, no utility bills, no IT headaches. We handle setup, maintenance, and support.

      That’s some of the sales pitch on their site about why HOA’s should get them.

      • adarza@piefed.caEnglish
        21 hours

        they were on a street that is also carries state and u.s. highway designation, just past the municipal boundary. small town here, there literally are no ‘subdivisions’ or hoa anywhere around.

        • 0ndead@infosec.pubEnglish
          21 hours

          Cops love surveillance. It’s easier for them than patrolling a beat; you know actual police work.

          For citizens, there is no real upside.

  • Curious_Canid@piefed.caEnglish
    18 hours

    I think we need to start holding paintball battles around Flock cameras. Just to provide the surveillance techs with some entertainment, of course.

    • RattlerSix@lemmy.worldEnglish
      21 hours

      That site is just a map of Flock cams. You can detect them with a tool called Flock You

    • unitedwithme@lemmy.todayEnglish
      22 hours

      Couldn’t I just run for president and abuse my “power” like Trump, but instead of doing lots of bad I could do good? Id start by making all these executive orders to raise wealth taxes, ban invasive technologies, limit social media influence, or big tech’s reach into buying out politicians, etc…

      Think Robin Hood but on a presidential scale.

      • FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.worldEnglish
        22 hours

        You could try.

        My wager is you’d be assassinated, but for a glorious and short time you’d be the most successful American president in history. There’s a reason why Congress term-limited presidents after FDR. People want presidents that actually do good shit. It’s just that we never get a choice between two good people ever.

        • unitedwithme@lemmy.todayEnglish
          21 hours

          Yeah, seeing how they wouldn’t offer secret service to RFK Jr when he ran for the short time, I’d certainly be SOL. I’d imagine I get the ol’ Russian “threw myself out the window” treatment or some other suicide thing…

    • LogicalDrivel@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      18 hours

      Depending on the route i take, there are up to 21 Flock cameras on my way to work. Its only like 5.5 miles.