Comment by baggy_trough
6 days ago
I live in a neighborhood that recently installed the Flock cameras. I was glad to see them installed, because my privacy concerns are significantly less pressing than my concerns about home invasion burglaries which have been occurring in the area.
I agree with you, but in my city police won’t do much even with the video proofs. They don’t care too much about stolen vehicles either.
I think the point is partly deterrence. Thieves might choose to burgle homes in areas without Flock cameras instead of areas with them to lower the risk of being caught.
Also, I believe Flock cameras immediately notify local PD when a vehicle reported as stolen passes by. Thieves often use stolen vehicles to avoid being caught, so this functionality makes it much more risky for them to do so. It basically tips off the cops even before you get to the home you're planning to burgle.
>Thieves might choose to burgle homes in areas without Flock cameras instead of areas with them
It doesn't really fix the issue then, just moves it around.
Not criticizing your reply here. It seems like that's the exact logic around it.
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Why not install the cameras and simply never connect them if the point is mere visual deterrence? Similarly, it's not hard to imagine an ALPR system that doesn't save anything unless there's a match with a stolen car database. You don't need to go all the way to the privacy nightmare of flock to improve the situation. Municipalities do because there's no care given to privacy rights.
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It depends on the jurisdiction. In my area, we still have some enforcement of property crime law. But if the criminals are able to escape to neighboring counties, very little will happen. The Flock cameras raise the chances that they will be apprehended beforehand.
Even if this were true, I don't understand why this information is not placed behind a court warrant requirement? Seems like a simple fix.
Even if what were true?
That privacy concerns are secondary to safety concerns.
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In my area it’s common to see cars with no plates. The police don’t seem to enforce it.
People planning home invasions know how to avoid ALPR. They wear masks and gloves, and leave their cell phones at home.
You are giving up your privacy, to anyone with access to Flock, for nothing at all.
That’s not a problem I observe, so I don’t think your conclusion follows for my circumstances.
Maybe the fix to home invasion burglaries isn't increased surveillance but actually helping people? We increasingly put people in bad situations and then blame them when they lash out.
This sounds like a "first they came for the socialists..." moment. Where we might not feel oppressed with the increased surveillance but as we go further and further into the surveillance state, eventually we'll be the ones that are pushed into a bad situation where a surveillance state is used against us.
There is no kind of bad situation that justifies burglarizing homes.
As the person you replied to said:
> We increasingly put people in bad situations and then blame them when they lash out.
They are not _justifying_ it, they are calling out a cause/effect relationship. When people are desperate, they do destructive things. And our society is doing things that increase the number of desperate people.
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So, the French Revolution was not justified?