Comment How about the false positives? (Score 1) 45
According to flock's own press releases their OCR accuracy is 96%. This means that the accuracy of reading a six character plate number is ~78%. This is likely reflecting the best case scenario and not real life where lighting, dirt, motion, weird angles, and obstacles are all degrading the accuracy.
So besides the couple of criminals that they caught, can we please hear about all the people who got stopped, potentially arrested and perhaps even had guns drawn on them? Also are they saying that they would have never caught the criminals by other means if it wasn't for the Flock cameras.
Don't get me wrong, I see the value of these cameras for solving crime. I think this is undeniable. What is also undeniable is the misuse and the deleterious effect mass surveillance have on democracy. Unless there is an independent and transparent oversight system that ensures this data is used for the cime purposes being claimed I think it does more bad than good. "Trust me bro" is not going to cut it for me. What is also important is who is physically in possession of the primary data and its derivatives, and how is their use of the data ensured to be lawful. It doesn't seem that the local law enforcement olds the data.