The police say that over the weekend, officers found the poles the cameras were mounted on had been cut down and the cameras were gone. Flock cameras are stirring controversy across the country as they compile license plate and other vehicle details in a national database.
  • Dryad@lemmy.worldEnglish
    14 hours

    They actually don’t own the cameras though. They rent them for $3,500 annually.

  • njordomir@lemmy.worldEnglish
    15 hours

    I imagine there are also some low level cops relieved to see them gone but don’t want to say so publicly. After all, AI is coming for their jobs too. Pretty soon buying a state patrolman a Honda Goldwing to patrol the highway will be an impossible sell when we could just strap a few more cameras to a pole or fly a drone. Everyone but the bootlickiest of the bootlickers will eventually hit their breaking point with this increasing public surveillance, just not until it goes poorly for them personally.

    • Talcosis@lemmy.zipEnglish
      2 hours

      Nah, those cameras aren’t coming for their jobs at all. Ultimately, the cops will always need bodies holding riot shields and shooting civilians.

    • ayyy@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      6 hours

      If they were capable of thinking that holistically and with foresight, they would not be allowed to be hired as cops.

    • CADmonkey@lemmy.worldEnglish
      9 hours

      I waa trying and probably failing to explain to someone that no matter who you are or what you believe, one day the fascists will demand of you something you don’t want to do.

      Even if you’re a cop.

  • Nfamwap@lemmy.worldEnglish
    16 hours

    Yo dawg, I think you need some cameras to monitor your cameras

  • Dave@lemmy.worldEnglish
    18 hours

    If I saw someone sawing down a Flock camera, I probably didn’t see anyone.

    • Echo Dot@feddit.ukEnglish
      11 hours

      If I lived in the US I’d just go around in blacked out sunglasses the whole time because there’s so many things that you better not see.

    • OwOarchist@pawb.socialEnglish
      17 hours

      They do have GPS trackers inside, but those can be defeated by putting them in a metal container, underwater, or underground. Or they might be disabled if the camera is destroyed and unpowered.

    • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.worldEnglish
      19 hours

      I imagine they are in the nearest trash bin, but who knows.

      (The broken cameras, no idea if they have trackers).

      “Sir it appears they cut it down, the next people came by and moved it off the sidewalk, the next people couldn’t mow the lawn with it in the way so they through it off to the side, and the building owner had someone move it off his property by having someone put it in the trash so it didn’t look like shit”

      • Zwuzelmaus@feddit.orgEnglish
        17 hours

        "Sir it appears they cut it down

        You mean, somebody cut it down?

        Naaah… surely it was just the wind that moved this chainsaw.