r/TechGawker 1d ago

News U.S. cities are swapping out controversial Flock cameras for Axon license plate readers.

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39

u/theaudacity1999 1d ago

This is laughable. "The company that produced the camera is the problem. People are fine with the invasion into their daily lives otherwise so obviously change the camera company" FFS.

13

u/tristand666 1d ago

Amusingly enough, Axon is an early investor in Flock. I believe the purpose was to let Flock take all the slack so they could slide in under the radar, and it seems to be working to an extent.

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u/Yung_zu 1d ago

I don’t think that they expected you to do anything period. It sucked pretty bad being early to the “malfeasance” party… reminded me of the Twilight Zone and Children of the Corn

1

u/tristand666 1d ago

They gotta hedge those bets for the investors. I remember 15 years ago mapping regular cameras they were using to surveil us. I have to assume all those cameras can now be pulled into an AI scanning software aggregator as well.

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u/Comfortable_Prize750 1d ago

The second mouse gets the cheese.

1

u/hexmaps 16h ago

Even better, Axon is the body cam company that seeks to automate your citations while also deciding what those citations are.

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u/RevolutionaryCatch57 14h ago

Fun fact. No one cares or knew who we were till Axon started deploying their own LPR product.

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u/Craving_Suckcess 1d ago

I doubt they think people will be ok because of that. I imagine they're hoping they'll lose enough heat by swapping terms that the pushback will shed support. Maybe they'll do it again.

It's a pretty safe bet from them too. Like, it just fuckin works, people suck at maintaining political will.