Flock used >100 times to track veteran who recorded traffic stop

https://reason.com/2026/09/02/wisconsin-cops-used-flock-over-100-times-to-track-a-navy-veteran-after-he-lawfully-recorded-a-traffic-stop/

128•bbatsell•45m ago

Comments

claaams•24m ago

How was there ever any doubt that these cameras and this access would be used in this way?

I personally blame the lack of accountability that police have in the US and the lack of public oversight into how departments operate.

bigyabai•22m ago

I personally blame Y Combinator for looking at Flock and going "Well, there is potential for abuse, but that's a risk we're willing to impose on society to make some money."

solenoid0937•17m ago

Not enough people blame VCs and the people that fund evil things. They are accessories. They knew this would happen, let's not pretend they didn't.

They are just shameless because making money has been canonized as a greater moral good than being a decent human being. We need to bring back name and shame.

matsemann•12m ago

Sooo many will tout something along "fiduciary duty to shareholders" to explain why evil must happen. Just search for it in comments here on HN, and you will see it again and again, as if everyone's hands are twisted.

eecc•6m ago

Well, doing the most immoral and reprehensible thing on the edge of what’s lawful is a guaranteed “blue ocean” strategy so it’s inevitable that the most sociopathic will take the opportunity

01284a7e•12m ago

They are the reason these companies exist. When it comes to the creation of large for-profit technology companies, they decide what comes about and what doesn't. The blame is on them.

Jtarii•11m ago

Blaming people trying to make money is so pointless. Change the law if you don't like what is happening.

a2ff6eeb0•6m ago

You're right. People trying to make money should be held legally accountable for the impact of their investments.

ggreer•16m ago

I'm pretty sure license plate readers and other surveillance tech have been abused constantly in the past, but we see more articles about Flock because they have better logging & auditing compared to smaller competitors or government-owned cameras.

ipython•6m ago

Flock also has the advantage of scale and centralization where previous solutions had neither

GymInMeCricket•13m ago

In my opinion, there was never any doubt that there would be over-policing. Rather, people doubt that they would belong to the over-policed parties. I hear similar arguments about NSF funding from my relatives: "yes, funding has been illegally cut, but it will not be cut for the people I know, only for the 'bad' researchers."

madaxe_again•11m ago

Leopards, faces, and all that jazz.

scotty79•8m ago

Calling fishing for vengance "overpolicing", that says a lot.

bediger4000•7m ago

There wasn't for anyone who paid attention. That "logic of surveillance" article a few years ago got it 100% correct: surveillance is immediately used against those who object to its use.

bko•6m ago

There was an audit trail for improper access using the technology and a lawsuit. How is this "lack of accountability" and "lack of public oversight"? Here are the 100 instances:

https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.wied.11...

AtlanticThird•4m ago

Are you aware of any current country or any country throughout history that has granted the government powers like this and hasn't been abused? I think you're mistaken to blame lack of accountability and lack of public oversight. I think it's simply not possible.

jmclnx•23m ago

Hopefully he gets a big enough payment that makes other jurisdictions remove these cameras.

fhdkweig•14m ago

Hopefully they remove cops who abuse their powers. While I agree that victims require compensation, ultimately these payouts only hurt the taxpayers who have to cover for these cops who at worst just move to another town to do it again.

theturtletalks•22m ago

Was just reading into this and it’s infuriating. He was recording another person’s traffic stop in a parking lot. Once the stop was done, he walks to his car. The same officer goes to his car and “pulls him over.” The vet says that you can’t pull someone over in a private parking lot, that’s not a legal stop. Doesn’t matter, he’s arrested and car towed.

He’s kept in jail for 5 hrs before being released for it not being a legal stop just like the vet said. Then that officer tracked him thru flock over 100 times for some personal vendetta.

Toutouxc•16m ago

Infuriating, yes, but apparently getting shot for no reason is also quite popular. This sounds like the better deal.

scotty79•4m ago

Nobody offers you such deal. You get both.

braum•16m ago

sounds like an easy win for a prosecutor for felony stalking.

there needs to be more separation from prosecutors and cops. I know a lot of places now have prosecutors who are actively against cops, that is not what I mean.

the prosecutors are supposed to be unbiased and make decisions on evidence. we know they don't regardless of their political leaning. but that is the standard we (citizens) should hold them accountable. unfortunately there are too may bootlicking voters who just want to feel "safe" and have zero courage of their own even in the voting booth.

we need to stop giving agencies money based on stats. that is one cause to a lot of these problems. then the cops and agencies get all twisted and in a tissy when a tool that made stat pumping easier like right now the flock cameras.

FeepingCreature

layer8•15m ago

The fact that the victim is a Navy veteran should be immaterial here. People shouldn’t be any less upset if he wasn’t.

CobaltFire•5m ago

As a veteran I agree, with a significant caveat:

Generally those who support the police in general (especially those with the thin blue line American flag) espouse support for veterans. The clash of a veteran with police operating illegally helps foster cognitive dissonance and disentangle these two institutions in their mind.

In other words these types of articles are helpful for causing those individuals to confront the issues in their belief structure.

I use them this way all the time with my parents, as they continue to insist that I (a retired Navy vet) should mindlessly support the police.

johnmlussier•15m ago

Don't remove the cameras - make sure they're used legally and bad apples don't ruin a good thing:

Four different places, four different children rescued by use of Flock cameras.

https://kfdm.com/news/local/flock-camera-teamwork-credited-w...

https://www.foxcarolina.com/2026/07/31/kidnapped-mother-son-...

https://www.whsv.com/2026/08/01/deputy-uses-flock-cameras-fi...

https://abc3340.com/news/local/moody-police-say-flock-camera...

Want to track latest on what flock cameras did? https://flockstopscrime.com

FeepingCreature•11m ago

Why not the other way around? First make sure the police department is capable of using them legally and reliably investigating abuse, then we can consider allowing them.

wateralien•11m ago

Surely access to footage can be gated behind some sort of expedited digital court warrant?

I always think of that scene in Minority Report where 3 judges are conferenced in live when a “vision” arrived.

Because if used properly and lawfully these cameras can be useful to keep people safe. Including from the cops.

spongebobstoes•7m ago

surveillance technology is not going away. we need to mitigate the downsides

what systems could be changed or created to prevent abuse of power?

PunchyHamster•6m ago

not installing them. Voting out anyone that does

GiorgioG•4m ago

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