Across the United States, dozens of law enforcement officers face accusations of misusing Flock, a surveillance network of 120,000 cameras that track license plates. Flock’s proponents claim that the technology does far more good than harm; one investor tells the Washington Post that abuse is “truly a nonissue.” But fear isn’t a statistic. Drew Harwell, Douglas MacMillan, and Aaron Schaffer structure their investigation of Flock’s misuse by law enforcement around the story of a woman in suburban Atlanta who had her whereabouts tracked hundreds of times by her ex, the local chief of police. Their report telescopes between the tradeoffs of a “transformational” technology and a few nightmarish cases of misuse.
Bakely said the cameras had left her feeling powerless to stop her ex-boyfriend from tracking her life. She didn’t feel safe asking the police agency he led, she said, and she couldn’t get access to records that would have shown the surveillance was happening in real time. After Steffman told her about his Flock searches, she filed for a restraining order, but a judge denied it on the basis that she couldn’t prove ongoing abuse, court records show.
He “watched every single move I made,” she said. But “who do you turn the chief of police in to?”
A few recent picks about surveillance
Inside America’s Shoplifting Lab
“In the war on ‘shrink,’ big retailers are turning to one Florida outfit to study shoppers and prevent them from stealing. I went there—and saw far too much.”
The Looting of Science Fiction
“Tech titans claim the genre inspired them. But all they’ve done is graft their politics onto stories of a better future.”
My Father Wants to Age in Place. AI Will Be Watching
“Devices that monitor seniors for safety are appealing to worried loved ones and underresourced home care agencies.”
