Flock Flocked up: How a license plate camera misread unraveled one man's life (opens in new tab)

(businessinsider.com)

61 pointstext040415d ago9 comments

9 comments

“In 2021, the research firm IPVM independently tested Flock's LPR cameras, concluding in a report that it misidentified which state a license plate was from for around 1 in 10 reads, and that the system regularly misclassified license plate state, vehicle type, and make. IPVM said that Flock subsequently blocked it from purchasing its cameras for testing.”

Whatcha got to hide, Garrett?

FireBeyond15d ago

Much. We can start with a "transparency" portal that doesn't cover at least 30% of installations. We can move on to data sharing functionality built and sold on the nudge-nudge-wink-wink of "We know that x, y and/or z methods of sharing data between operators/agencies is limited or illegal in your state, but we're certainly not disabling the feature so you can't use it", and from there on to the dystopian Minority Report vision that sees false negatives as unacceptable to Garrett, while false positives are something he has decided are an acceptable price for you to pay towards his (quite literal) vision of "a world with zero crime, thanks to Flock".

mitchbob15d ago

https://archive.ph/2026.03.09-091847/https://www.businessins...

smalltorch15d ago

Didn't the guy who made yolo Joseph Redmond decide to stop developing due to fear of misuse?

Edit: here it is https://medium.com/@graham.wallington/the-evolution-of-yolo-...

>• Mass Surveillance: He expressed concern over his algorithms being employed in systems that could infringe on individual privacy rights, particularly in oppressive regimes or contexts lacking strict regulations.

dlcarrier15d ago

Unless I'm missing something, the pertinent license-plate misreading happened when the vehicle was pulled over. It's one thing if a false positive shows a stolen vehicle or license plate where it isn't, but all that means is any resources put into locating it will go wasted.

Pulling over a vehicle, and incorrectly thinking it is stolen, is an entirely different and much greater mistake. In this case the actual vehicles actual license plate did not match anything stolen.

I'm against law enforcement vehicles having continuously-operating license-plate cameras, but if there were cameras to identify the vehicle currently being pulled over, I'd be fine with that, as it would likely have a much, much lower error rate than the human chain currently doing the verifying.

p0w3n3d15d ago

I didn't read it all but it seems 80% of it is a poem on how the flock helps

diogenes_atx15d ago

It's truly astonishing that the cops in the video were not disciplined for deliberately attacking the victim with a vicious police dog. Apparently the standard of conduct for American police has sunk so low that it is considered acceptable for law enforcement to violently assault a suspect who poses no obvious threat to them or anyone else.

zoezoezoezoe14d ago

I hope flock gets sued into oblivion, and I hope the officer that deployed a canine with no good reason gets sued into oblivion and loses his job. What a disgusting misuse of power.

jakedata15d ago

^f settlement

$35,000 for being attacked by a police dog, hospitalized and jailed for hours. Nope. I'd ride that to the supreme court. He is lucky he wasn't shot for a 'misread'.

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