926
Fascists don't particularly care about false positives. The cameras are operating as intended.
Absolutely this, and why they’re fine with executing innocent people on death row, cops killing people who were running away or complying and not a threat, or some DA imprisoning someone for decades on crappy evidence only to be found innocent after half their life is gone.
They drove up and didn't check/verify the plate before engaging? That seems stupid and lacking responsibility.
What was it, two cop cars? Then I assume four cops? Always makes me wonder if the engagement is in a warranted amount. I assume it's the norm in the US, maybe it's necessary for "stolen car", although I'm skeptical, and it certainly makes it worse for the falsely accused exposed to it. And it makes the lack of verification, making it not just a flock false positive but an engagement false positive, victimizing civilians, worse.
four cop cars came flying out of nowhere and boxed us in. The officers jumped out and started shouting.
So, 4 cars, who knows how many cops.
Really, this is a story about how absurd cops are in the USA.
At no point in this tale was there ever a car reported stolen. It was only a set of license plates that went missing. So, at no point was there a car thief, you can't have a car thief if there's no stolen car. Obviously, if there's no car thief, there can't be any reason to assume that the person in the "stolen car" will be violent. Yet, somehow the police charged up aggressively, boxing him in using 4 cars, jumping out and shouting, hands on their guns.
The cops even claimed that their reaction was "lucky" for the guy:
“You’re lucky we’re in Plymouth. If you were in Minneapolis, they definitely would’ve come at you with guns drawn.”
And the guy considers himself lucky too:
And the more I’ve sat with the aftermath, the more I’m thinking about how, with a different set of officers in a different city, or a different unsuspecting driver with 34 ## DTM New Jersey plates who was a little less collected, this could’ve ended so, so much worse. Thank God our kids weren’t with us. I’m not sure if I would’ve been able to react as calmly.
If he hadn't been as calm, he might have been killed by the cops because he might not have reacted as calmly.
The fact that this is being framed as a "Flock" issue is absurd. It's like a story about a sensor in front of the orphan crushing machine which sometimes misidentifies normal people as orphans and throws them onto the conveyor belt. Sure, that's an issue, but let's focus on this orphan crushing machine first.
Police state.
It is not uncommon for cops to obtain warrants for the wrong house and tear that place apart looking for drugs or someone who was never there. The departments have no financial responsibility for the damage and personal injuries they cause. Why would they bother reading the plate?
and then bragged 'you're lucky we didn't come out with guns drawn'
fucking yokel shitbags
Always makes me wonder if the engagement is in a warranted amount.
We've hired so many cops and they've all got nothing (practical) to do. So it's not unusual to see cops piling up around any kind of dispatch.
load more comments
(1 replies)
False positives are your problem, not the cops. You should try not being unlucky next time.
Also - I'm so sorry you had to go through that, fuck flock.
Nah, cops are the problem, too.
Guilty until proven that innocent unless you're a politician or CEO or celebrity or whatever ...
Lol no, cops are definitely part of the problem. This reaction over fake plates is not sane
You are right, I guess I was being sarcastic about there being multiple layers of failures here, and the only one who didn't contribute to a failure (columnist/driver) is the one paying the price.
load more comments
(1 replies)
👉 The system is working exactly as intended and must be destroyed
A- USA doesn't have standardised plates? Not even 1 per state, but 8000?!
2- Fuck mass survalance, fuck armed cops, fuck Flock.
Also their own licenses and licensing procedures.
A, but then 2? You monster! :)
A - The USA is 50 countries in a trench coat
2 - Correct
The USA is 50 corporations in a trench coat.
No stop it that’s ridiculous. There’s only 4 these days, they bought up all the competition.
Each state has different levels of customization with different background images. I like plate customization, its a form of self expression.
You have bigger problems if you're relying on a custom license plate to express a personality...
Risk isn't worth "reward', especially when you hear things like certain backwards states trying to mandate a default " in god we trust" of other biblical theme so that people then need to opt out intentionally, in turn their vehicles becoming potential targets for zealots and cops to harass.
Just mandate national design with black text on white background
But in 1928, the secretary of state in Idaho had an epiphany. He realized that the license plate was the perfect place to advertise a home-grown product, and that product was… a potato.
As a Jehovah’s Witness, Maynard actually believed that God-given life was more important than freedom and he didn’t appreciate the government telling him what to die over. So Maynard covered the slogan up with some tape…
Covering up the slogan was a violation of state law…Finally, his consistent refusal to pay them landed him in court. The judge ended up putting him in jail for fifteen days, “And so if you don’t want to live free or die, you go to jail in New Hampshire,” says Maynard.
The state court agreed but unfortunately for Maynard, Meldrim “Live-free-or-die” Thomson, had become governor by then, and he appealed the case all the way to the Supreme Court…[They] ultimately ended up siding with Maynard. “The First Amendment protects “you against government censorship. But the free speech clause also protects your right not to speak,” says Caroline Mala Corbin, a First Amendment scholar at the University of Miami, “So it protects you against the government, forcing you to say an ideological message that you disagree with. And that was what the problem was here.”
The story goes on to talk about specialty plates and designs with confederate flags.
https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/434-artistic-license/
Customized images, yes. Overlapping alphanumeric codes (two vehicles with the same sequence?) NO. Maybe it was necessary in the 1960s, but it is long since past time for issuance of alpha-numeric unique identifiers to become... unique throughout the states.
load more comments
(17 replies)
load more comments
(40 replies)
load more comments
(3 replies)
Yes, the Flock system is working correctly, as a tool for police to stalk and harass innocent people.
Also a tool to give plausible deniability when shit hits the fan.
It is working perfectly as intended. It is intended to facilitate fascist authority, siphon wealth from municipalities, and help make cops feel tough so they can more efficiently lord over their communities.
They always claim everything they do is correct and working. To admit otherwise means opening the department up to a lawsuit they may actually lose their jobs over.
view more: next ›
this post was submitted on 17 Jul 2026
926 points (99.6% liked)
Technology
86444 readers
2959 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related news or articles.
- Be excellent to each other!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
- Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.
Approved Bots
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS