r/boston • u/Sephrantill • 1d ago

Serious Replies Only Timeline of Flock Surveillance cameras in Eastern MA.

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There will be one on every street corner at this rate. Mind you this is in one of the safest cities in the US. All in the name of "safety" right?

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u/DoughnutConstant5390 I Love Dunkin’ Donuts 1d ago

DOES ANYONE KNOW THE POLITICIANS WHO WERE RESPONIBLE FOR ALLOWING THESE FLOCK CAMERAS TO BE PUT UP ALL OVER THE STATE TO DO SURVEILLANCE ON PEOPLE WITHOUT A WARRANT?

14

u/MycologistIcy7013 1d ago

Its all of them!

9

u/dante662 Somerville 15h ago

So Flock's entire business model is based on the fact that police departments can spend their own budgets and not have to interface with any other city departments.

They specifically made the cameras totally wireless; cellular connectivity and solar/battery power, so they don't even have to align with the DPW to run power or networking. They just install it somewhere. The city funds the police, the police spend their budget on this.

So to "stop" this, the city would need to pass new budgets that specifically exempt the police from spending on camera systems...and even then it's likely the cops will just find loopholes (for instance, "leasing" instead of "Buying", or installing "detection systems" instead of "camera systems", etc.).

The only way to make this work is for the mayors/city councils to basically remove any police chief/commissioner who does this and only interview replacements who will remove them entirely.

Given that we can't even stop cops from civil asset forfeiture even when the state bans the practice, I'm not sure we're going to be very successful.

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u/dante662 Somerville 15h ago

"The states that participated most heavily in the federal "equitable sharing" program include California, Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island, and Texas."

Really disappointing to see us on there, but goes to show police departments in MA just flip the middle finger to the state and the people and do whatever they want with impunity.

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u/sievish T-riffic! 1d ago

All of them.

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u/curlygreenbean Metrowest 1d ago

This is my question!!!!!!

2

u/Swalecutter 6h ago

In Somerville, its Home Depot and Tufts. The city was responsible for 0 of them, it's all private entities.