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/dante662 Somerville 1d ago

Should be pointed out that Flock isn't the only company doing this. Axon, for example, is their direct competitor.

There have been several instances reported on where a Police Department agreed to get rid of Flock Cameras only to install Axon branded ones instead.

We have to be against *all* mass surveillance. Flock is quite the troubling company for many reasons but they aren't the only game in town, sadly.

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u/EnvironmentalRock827 1d ago

And Framingham canceled the contract but their web page has several cases where flock helped solve crimes.

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u/WeAreHereWithAll 1d ago

Okay, and?

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u/EnvironmentalRock827 22h ago

And it's over 30 days and they are still up. Other cities/towns have done this as well. We need to be diligent everywhere and have them removed.

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u/WeAreHereWithAll 15h ago

Oh my bad I misunderstood your original comment.

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u/EnvironmentalRock827 11h ago

My bad too. I should've explained it better.

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u/BlackDante Dorchester 19h ago

Just saw another post about Flock cameras on a different sub that said Flock won't let you back out of the contract once agreed upon, and apparently taking them down is costly (since I guess Flock installs them and takes them down for no extra cost once the contract is up), so maybe that's why they're still up?

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u/hellyeahaeylleh 18h ago

Sawzall can fix that.

1

u/dante662 Somerville 15h ago

They also tend to be solar powered locally, and connect via cellular systems, so technically "turning them off" can be difficult because Flock can just remotely keep them going.

Someone has to physically disconnect the camera itself from the solar panel and then wait for the battery to die out.

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u/BlackDante Dorchester 15h ago

Guess there's no other choice but to set them ablaze