Lot of eye-opening details in this new Post story on how Flock's lackadaisical attitude toward security -- the company didn't require 2FA until this August -- has allowed unauthorized people to access sensitive data washingtonpost.com/technology/202…
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ICE and the IRS seized $450k from an Arizona small business and kept it without charging them with any crime, in apparent violation of federal law. youtube.com/watch?v=IN9ut1…
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Detail I wasn't aware of: the white police chief in this town was fired last month for repeatedly saying the N-word mississippitoday.org/2026/08/22/sen…
Actually cannot believe what I've read here.
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@maxnesterak If there's something stupid happening in Minnesota politics you can always count on one name to show up
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U. Chicago professor in this story and one of his co-authors (apparently Vadim Sokolov of GMU) sent a bizarre AI-generated critique to the Dean of the guy who initially flagged his 200+ AI-authored papers on SSRN.
I am pleased to announce a new professional milestone: Professor Polson was sufficiently unhappy with my post, and the ensuing Washington Post article, that he decided to email *my Dean* an AI-generated review of my body of work.
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James City County? Now where have I heard that name recently? wtkr.com/news/in-the-co…
Police will get your location history from Flock's database because you're “‘suspicious’ per a karen.” A warrant requirement could keep them at that same standard (or lack thereof).
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ALPR boosters are fond of cherry picking along the lines of "We installed the cameras and then crime dropped by X%." Unfortunately it's just as easy to find examples going the other way. ij.org/how-flock-is-t…
Buckeye (AZ) is sending out mailers to defend the PD's use of ALPRs since 2022 — they located a stolen car in 2024.
Separately, BPD writes, "Buckeye experienced an increase in drug-related offenses of 35% and an increase in weapon offenses of 114% between 2022 and 2025"
🤔
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"None of the problems and dangers that they warned have come to pass.”
Well. At least 258 of them have! ij.org/the-ij-databas…
Well. At least 258 of them have! ij.org/the-ij-databas…
For years, @ACLU has railed against Automated License Plate Readers like Flock cameras.
@rafaelmangual of the @manhattaninstitute says they've been wasting our time:
"None of the problems and dangers that they warned have come to pass.”
The debate:
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Oh I forgot the craziest detail of this case: plaintiff asked for just $76 -- one dollar for every minute he was illegally detained on the side of the highway
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@fiundagner At the risk of oversimplifying: they rewarded the dog for *alerts,* rather than *confirmed finds.* The dog alerted on literally every car it sniffed.
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Thousands of innocent drivers were subject to humiliating and baseless stops, searches and interrogations.
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Earlier this evening a federal jury struck down a brazenly unconstitutional traffic stop scheme "that turned mass surveillance of American drivers into a pipeline of pretextual traffic stops and unconstitutional searches." ij.org/press-release/…
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"manilla folders and small paper cups"
gosh, if only there were someone on this website with a lot of experience dealing with loose crickets that these Hill staffers could have consulted... (cc @_cingraham)
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One overlooked item in the ALPR debate: Flock and others had the good fortune of scaling up in the middle of a massive drop in crime that was *already happening.* They've been taking credit for a pre-existing trend. ij.org/how-flock-is-t…
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YouGov poll: likely voters prefer Democratic socialists over MAGA Republicans by an 18-point margin. yougovamerica.substack.com/p/democrats-ho…
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New @IJ report: SWAT teams damaged the homes, vehicles and other property of innocent people thousands of times over the past decade. But in more than half of those cases, agencies refused to pay. ij.org/report/public-…
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Stepping back a bit, mayors and police chiefs love to say "We did X and then crime dropped Y percent." But crime isn't that simple, and you should be deeply suspicious of any company pitching you a silver bullet solution to it.
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But also, the topline finding of a reduction in car theft depends entirely on the study's decision to weight the data in favor of cities with higher amounts of car theft *before* deploying the cameras. Change the weighting and the effects go away.
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The main problem: car thefts were *already* falling before the cameras were deployed. That makes it hard to attribute any effects to Flock cameras, for reasons that should be obvious.
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Three resignations, the implication is that fully half of Creve Coeur's sworn officers were abusing the Flock system 25newsnow.com/2026/08/27/cre…
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What accountability looks like in the Flock era: Police departments refusing to do the bare minimum until a reporter does it for them. usatoday.com/story/news/inv…
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@Rafa_Mangual @Robert_Frommer @AP @IJ @flocksafety Cases abound of PDs not policing abuse until someone else does it for them
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.@reason got the incident report, which states that officer Trenton Garner shot and killed HeeHaw the miniature petting zoo donkey because HeeHaw "began to charge at us" reason.com/2026/09/02/geo…
A police officer in Georgia shot and killed a petting zoo donkey named HeeHaw while conducting a warrantless search of the donkey's pasture in the middle of the night fox5atlanta.com/news/donkey-sh…
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@KatrinMarquez I especially like that company bills itself as an "ID fraud prevention" service!
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Opposition to automated license plate reader use rose 13 points in the past year. Would likely be higher if "Flock" were included in the question wording. washingtonpost.com/technology/202…
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Reporters and activists covering Flock and ALPR issues: @IJ is now tracking localities that have canceled or decided not to renew their contracts with ALPR providers (primarily Flock). 92 communities and counting.
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@pjaicomo @CharlesFLehman @IJ Two points:
-- "non-law enforcement use" is basically a catchall for unspecified misconduct, and I expect many if not most of those will resolve into stalking when more details are available
-- Langley says the number of misconduct cases is about to jump dramatically
-- "non-law enforcement use" is basically a catchall for unspecified misconduct, and I expect many if not most of those will resolve into stalking when more details are available
-- Langley says the number of misconduct cases is about to jump dramatically
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Flock's CEO says they're building a new AI surveillance tool that cops get addicted to wired.com/story/flock-sa…
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A Massachusetts woman fled an allegedly abusive relationship with a cop and changed her identity. He figured out a way to stalk her via Flock cameras anyway. She found out by typing her license plate into @HIBFlocked
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.@SignalAkron sat in on a conference call where Flock's CEO discussed media strategy with local law enforcement. Flock is encouraging police departments to share "sob stories" with local media.
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NEW: 39 stalking cases. 55 other cases of officer misconduct. 31 errors ending in wrongful stops, and 15 other miscellaneous abuses. @IJ has put together the most comprehensive database of Flock and other ALPR abuse to date.
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New: The same MN county prosecutor who tried to charge a lady for bong water now has to give an alleged fentanyl dealer a retrial after misstating the law to a jury
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"Flock sent 1,427 alerts to Roseville police over two years, flagging cars as stolen or used in a felony. In 71% of them, Flock read the plates wrong."
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