Wow. Police cameras were just added to our small city, manufactured by Flock Safety. Anyone else experience this invasion of privacy?
These cameras take photos of ALL cars passing through an intersection where mounted. One was just mounted at the entry to our street – pointed in the direction of the neighborhood. Supposedly they only capture license plates, make, model and color of cars, photos are held for 30 days in the cloud (but can be shared with other police departments), and reviewed in the event of a crime in or near the city.
These cameras are NOT for monitoring traffic, or tolls. They are intended to help apprehend drivers in the event of a crime, Amber Alert, etc. They were requested by the local police, and quickly approved by the elected city representatives. No vote by citizens. The cameras are intended for public parks, schools, and busy intersections – none of which apply to our neighborhood!
Our neighborhood is a very sleepy and safe one. To my knowledge (and I’ve lived here a LONG time), there have been few thefts or incidents. I see no reason for a camera mounted at the entrance. There is a second entry point, with no camera installed, so it does little for our own neighborhood and it’s very unnerving!
What is our recourse? Clearly (imho) this violates something! The article below suggests options before cameras are installed. But what about after?
The way I see it, if we use a credit card, a smart phone, a tablet, a desktop, etc, our privacy has already been violated (at times, without us knowing it) one way or another.
I went to Trader Joe yesterday and bought food items including a packet of hash browns. I came home, turned on my iPad. What did I see? An advertisement of hash browns on top of the page!! How did they know? I don’t have Alexa or Ring. I did not tell my family I bought hash browns. I guess I paid with my credit card and somehow, the itemized food items became known to agencies that bought this type of info.
If police want to install a camera in my neighborhood for a community safety purpose, be my guest.
Your mentioned that your neighborhood is sleepy and safe one. In these days and age, I think crime can reach any “safe” neighborhood.
@rphcfb while I see your point, it makes sense to me that residents of the block(s) around the camera should be given approval before one is installed and functioning.
A few years ago, our police department put up lots of cameras around our downtown area and parks in case of crime. I am ok with that.
What they are asking for now is for homeowners to register their ring doorbells with them. Supposedly they can’t access your footage, but they will have a record who has what cameras where in case of a crime and can contact you. I’ve not signed up for that. It makes me uneasy for some reason.
We lived in a neighborhood (small township w/shared police with 2 other small townships) with security cameras for years at the two entrance/exit roads. Seemed odd for about a minute and then never thought about it. Guess what - no car break ins, minimal home break ins and no speeding cars. Moved from
that house to one in the neighboring small township (same shared police), same income demographics and there are regular car, home break ins and mail theft. Pro camera here.
I’d been against things like Ring doorbells from the beginning. This Christmas LEO son gave me one as a gift. He said they have helped significantly with criminal investigations. They check the houses around locations they’ve been called to for potential criminal activity to see if they have Ring cameras. If so, they knock on doors to ask for any footage they might have. I plan to install it this weekend, but I’m never putting cameras, or things like Alexa inside my house.
In general I’d not be too concerned. (Actually, I think that may be what is on top of a pole on our corner). Watching UK shows like Shetland etc, it does seem prevalent there.
But… if facial recognition involved, this (if still true) would be a concern to me. I am white, but on principal of fairness I do worry.
I just assumed ALL signaled intersections were monitored. Everywhere. I thought that was SOP by now.
If you own a smart phone, intersection cameras should be the least of your worries. And, if you have Alexa/Siri/location tracking enabled, there is NOTHING about you that is private. That horse left the barn so long ago it’s been remodeled into a she-shed.
Our intersections have cameras that detect cars so the signal knows to change. There is video and it can be used at times in case of an accident/traffic dispute. But the video is not kept very long. Can’t remember if it’s 24 hours or 30 days. Yeah big difference, but it’s been a few years since the traffic guy showed me.
In the older days it looked more like an early 1980s video game. Cars just looked like white rectangles on a black screen.
And I never assume privacy. If someone wants to look at my life, they’d be pretty disappointed!
For sure me too, but it’s still creepy. You know the kid throwing starfish back in the sea? Fighting back has to start somewhere. Just like climate change and all the other evils in our country and the world.
Most people don’t see the invasive technology they willingly embrace as evil and, in most cases, it isn’t. It’s the potential for misuse/abuse by powerful bad actors that is concerning. The global saturation of these listening/tracking devices will greatly assist in our eventual undoing.
True. And these days when it is easily possible to fake video (and audio) evidence…. I’m more worried about fake-out of bad deeds than any observation of my real and boring life.
I live adjacent to a university with blue lights on the street, with cameras on every pole. The crime in our area is super low. I’m happy to give up some privacy for greater safety.
I will say…thank goodness for those cameras on certain situations. We know someone who was involved in a terrible hit and run. Thankfully, this was all caught in camera, including license plate number. It helped the police track down this irresponsible driver.