Photos: Someone ‘melted and slashed’ two Flock cameras in Fort Lauderdale
Published by Miami New Times
A source is testimony, not proof. Citing one is a provenance fact — it records who said what, where — and never a verification that the claim is true.
Who is named
The characters and things this document talks about — 10 in alls. Each links to everything else the record knows about them.
People 1
Organisations 6
The Guardian Cobb County, Georgia Flock Safety Fort Lauderdale Police Department American Civil Liberties Union DeFlock
Places 1
Things 2
Claims made
Every claim in this document. Firsthand = asserted on its own basis; secondhand = recounted from elsewhere, carrying no independent weight.
-
Two Flock cameras in Croissant Park neighborhood were cut down last month.
The Fort Lauderdale Police Department says two Flock cameras in the city's Croissant Park neighborhood were cut down last month.
-
A city employee found the cameras down around 8:50 a.m. on July 6 at SW 4th Avenue and SW 21st Street, where the pole stood on the median facing traffic in both directions, according to the report (attached at the bottom of this story).
-
The responding officer wrote that one pole had been cut from the ground — possibly with a knife — and that the two cameras were “melted and slashed.”
-
Fort Lauderdale police classified the incident as felony criminal mischief.
While Fort Lauderdale police classified the incident as felony criminal mischief, the case didn’t remain open long.
-
A detective canvassed the area and found no public or private surveillance video and no witnesses, the report states.
She closed the case pending “additional evidence” on July 28, three weeks after the cameras came down.
-
A department spokesperson tells New Times no arrests have been made.
-
The city listed the damaged equipment at $6,000.
The city listed the damaged equipment at $6,000.
-
The poles run about $3,000 apiece.
A city employee told the responding officer the poles run about $3,000 apiece.
-
FLPD signed a one-year agreement in March 2022 to test 25 Flock Safety license plate reader cameras.
Casey Liening, an FLPD spokesperson, tells New Times the department signed a one-year agreement in March 2022 to test 25 Flock Safety license plate reader (LPR) cameras.
-
FLPD buys its Flock cameras through a cooperative agreement with Cobb County, Georgia.
It now buys its Flock cameras through a cooperative agreement with Cobb County, Georgia — an arrangement Liening says is permissible when it’s with another government agency for products or services from a vetted vendor.
-
Eighty eight Flock cameras are stationed across Fort Lauderdale.
Eighty eight Flock cameras are stationed across Fort Lauderdale, Liening says.
-
DeFlock lists more than 850 Flock cameras across Broward County.
DeFlock, a crowdsourced map that tracks license plate readers nationwide, lists more than 850 across Broward County.
-
Flock, based in Georgia and valued at $8.4 billion, says its cameras scan license plates billions of times each month in communities in nearly every state.
-
The cameras log the plate of every car that passes and upload it to a massive database.
The cameras, or ALPRs (automated license plate recognition), log the plate of every car that passes and upload it to a massive database.
-
The cameras can also identify cars by make and model, and read bumper stickers.
They can also identify cars by make and model, and read bumper stickers.
-
Scans are deleted after 30 days.
The company says scans are deleted after 30 days.
-
Privacy advocates say the cameras sweep up locations of drivers suspected of nothing at all.
The devices have drawn nationwide backlash from privacy advocates who say the cameras sweep up the locations of drivers suspected of nothing at all.
-
Critics point to reports about police misusing the systems.
Critics also point to reports about police misusing the systems.
-
A Texas officer searched cameras nationwide for a woman who had gotten an abortion.
In one case, a Texas officer searched cameras nationwide for a woman who had gotten an abortion.
-
In the Florida Keys, a Monroe County sheriff’s deputy tracked down and pulled over a woman he’d met on the set of the Apple TV series Bad Monkey after adding her plate to a hotlist.
He was fired and arrested in March on three felony counts of misusing a law enforcement database.
-
Flock, on the other hand, says the cameras are integral to public safety, capturing details that help investigators, including plate numbers and vehicle make and model.
-
The company’s website advertises that the cameras “stop crime in real time” by alerting officers “the moment a suspect car passes by.”
-
In late July, The Guardian identified at least 33 instances across 23 states in which people damaged or destroyed Flock cameras in what appeared to be protests of surveillance.
-
Meanwhile, civil liberties groups are pushing a more, um, conventional route. The American Civil Liberties Union’s national “Get the Flock Out” campaign, launched this summer, walks residents through filing public records requests, drafting model ordinances, and attending city council meetings so they can push their local governments to end Flock contracts.
No claims match this filter.
What it cost
Reading this document into the graph cost $0.02.
24 claims in all. Content fingerprint 69b7ad76355a… —
the document's text itself is not republished here; follow the link above to read it at
its source.