Five Police Officers Criminally Charged for Misusing Flock Cameras in Indianapolis (msn.com) 114
"Nationwide, at least 100 police department employees have been charged with or accused of misusing license-plate readers for unauthorized purposes," reports the Washington Post. They cite their past investigations "based on thousands of pages of police and court records," which found that "In many of these cases, officers used Flock's roadside cameras to track the location of romantic partners and exes."
In fact, five Indianapolis police officers were just criminally charged Wednesday with fraud and misconduct. "One has also been charged with stalking," the police department said in a statement, noting that one office had already resigned, "while the four other officers have been suspended and recommended for termination. County prosecutor Ryan Mears admitted "A lot of this was initiated by The Washington Post."
And the Post published a new investigation Wednesday: Using publicly available information, The Post found that...one of the officers charged Wednesday, appeared to have relied on Flock cameras to track vehicles used by his wife and two close personal acquaintances, searching the plates 3,759 times over a 10-month period — an average of about 12 lookups per day. At the time, Police Chief Tanya Terry said she suspended one officer while the department conducted an investigation into possible misuse and a systemwide audit of the city's 301-camera Flock system. That audit led to the discovery of more widespread abuse, [County prosecutor Ryan] Mears said Wednesday.
Mears said the department's findings highlight the vast power Flock cameras give police officers and raise questions about whether the government should be doing more to prevent the misuse of that power. "Many of the proposed guardrails and the things that have been proposed would not have prevented the behaviors and actions we see here today," Mears said. "Does there need to be independent oversight? Does there need to be judicial oversight of the Flock camera system?"
One of the Indianapolis officers, Schultz, an 18-year veteran of the police department, was accused of using Flock to track his ex-wife and women he met while on duty or out in public. He was charged with multiple counts of official misconduct as well as two counts of stalking. Schultz told one woman he was an FBI agent, according to prosecutors, and began texting her and showing up at places she frequented, including at her gym and at a school function with her daughter. Prosecutors said he arrived at her gym within an hour of her at least nine times between June 12 and Aug. 1 of this year... Another woman met Schultz after her car was stolen from a mall parking lot, and he began texting her flirty messages later that night. The two dated briefly, and Schultz later looked up where the woman went on dates with another man. Schultz searched the plates of a third woman 178 times and also frequently showed up where she was, including her gym, a Smoothie King and a Walmart earlier this month...
A third officer, Binford, told investigators he had used the log-in credentials of another officer who had logged in to Binford's laptop during a field training exercise. Binford searched the plate of his ex-wife more than 1,000 times between April 2024 and April 2025. Indianapolis police had no regular practice of auditing officers' Flock searches until recently, [Police Chief] Terry said in an interview last month. The department's investigation into the tool's misuse has been "a learning process for us," she said at the time.
In fact, five Indianapolis police officers were just criminally charged Wednesday with fraud and misconduct. "One has also been charged with stalking," the police department said in a statement, noting that one office had already resigned, "while the four other officers have been suspended and recommended for termination. County prosecutor Ryan Mears admitted "A lot of this was initiated by The Washington Post."
And the Post published a new investigation Wednesday: Using publicly available information, The Post found that...one of the officers charged Wednesday, appeared to have relied on Flock cameras to track vehicles used by his wife and two close personal acquaintances, searching the plates 3,759 times over a 10-month period — an average of about 12 lookups per day. At the time, Police Chief Tanya Terry said she suspended one officer while the department conducted an investigation into possible misuse and a systemwide audit of the city's 301-camera Flock system. That audit led to the discovery of more widespread abuse, [County prosecutor Ryan] Mears said Wednesday.
Mears said the department's findings highlight the vast power Flock cameras give police officers and raise questions about whether the government should be doing more to prevent the misuse of that power. "Many of the proposed guardrails and the things that have been proposed would not have prevented the behaviors and actions we see here today," Mears said. "Does there need to be independent oversight? Does there need to be judicial oversight of the Flock camera system?"
One of the Indianapolis officers, Schultz, an 18-year veteran of the police department, was accused of using Flock to track his ex-wife and women he met while on duty or out in public. He was charged with multiple counts of official misconduct as well as two counts of stalking. Schultz told one woman he was an FBI agent, according to prosecutors, and began texting her and showing up at places she frequented, including at her gym and at a school function with her daughter. Prosecutors said he arrived at her gym within an hour of her at least nine times between June 12 and Aug. 1 of this year... Another woman met Schultz after her car was stolen from a mall parking lot, and he began texting her flirty messages later that night. The two dated briefly, and Schultz later looked up where the woman went on dates with another man. Schultz searched the plates of a third woman 178 times and also frequently showed up where she was, including her gym, a Smoothie King and a Walmart earlier this month...
A third officer, Binford, told investigators he had used the log-in credentials of another officer who had logged in to Binford's laptop during a field training exercise. Binford searched the plate of his ex-wife more than 1,000 times between April 2024 and April 2025. Indianapolis police had no regular practice of auditing officers' Flock searches until recently, [Police Chief] Terry said in an interview last month. The department's investigation into the tool's misuse has been "a learning process for us," she said at the time.
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Are they just now learning ACAB?
Are you 12 years old? Or stupid? Having worked with law enforcement 30 years ago and dealing with them on occasion since then I can tell you that some are certainly bastards. But they are the exception and not all or even the majority.
There are tens of thousands of law enforcement encounters every day in the US. You never see the good ones. Just the same handful of bad ones over and over. Is there room for improvement? Of course there is. There's always room for improvement in everything. Why don't you
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And I did not become a Lackawanna County volunteer sheriff's deputy to make friends. And by the way, I haven't.
Re: Learning (Score:4, Insightful)
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Like this one?
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Or more accurately stories like that get you blue balled in the force. Have you ever worked somewhere where everyone hates you and doesn't trust you? It's not pleasant for anyone but the most narcissistic arsehole.
Re: Learning (Score:5, Insightful)
Where are all press releases about all these good cops referring the bad cops to the DA for charges & testifying against them?
Or court announcements?
Or even social media posts?
Or fucking anything besides silence and complicity?
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OK, apparently I'll have to explain this to you ...
Your post posited that we don't see a bunch of stories like this because of ad revenue. Besides being incredibly stupid (there's plenty of places to publish and get ad revenue for stories like these), it is IRRELEVANT.
My point was that charges like these are not driven by ad revenue. If there were really a bunch of charges being filed, we would see announcements in other channels. But we don't.
And I'm still laughing at how you don't see that "This is a thre
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Re: Learning (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Learning (Score:5, Insightful)
One of the Indianapolis officers, Schultz, an 18-year veteran of the police department, was accused of using Flock to track his ex-wife and women he met while on duty or out in public. He was charged with multiple counts of official misconduct as well as two counts of stalking. Schultz told one woman he was an FBI agent, according to prosecutors, and began texting her and showing up at places she frequented, including at her gym and at a school function with her daughter.
Seriously, fuck you.
Why did so many "good" cops allow one of their own to be an asshole for 18 years? Because they protect their fucked up coworkers, which makes them all bastards. No, I'm not joining those bastards, fuck them. Cops have made themselves societies enemy, they brought my attitude on themselves.
Why do you think that people hate Police but not Firefighters or EMTs? I'm sure you think its because Police have a hard job. Its because Police operate more like a Gang than anything else, they have power and the immunity to abuse it without consequence. This whole thing is only happening because of the Washington Post, not because any good cop did anything about his criminal coworkers. Get a fucking clue.
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One of the Indianapolis officers, Schultz, an 18-year veteran of the police department, was accused of using Flock to track his ex-wife and women he met while on duty or out in public. He was charged with multiple counts of official misconduct as well as two counts of stalking. Schultz told one woman he was an FBI agent, according to prosecutors, and began texting her and showing up at places she frequented, including at her gym and at a school function with her daughter.
Seriously, fuck you.
Why did so many "good" cops allow one of their own to be an asshole for 18 years? Because they protect their fucked up coworkers, which makes them all bastards. No, I'm not joining those bastards, fuck them. Cops have made themselves societies enemy, they brought my attitude on themselves.
Why do you think that people hate Police but not Firefighters or EMTs? I'm sure you think its because Police have a hard job. Its because Police operate more like a Gang than anything else, they have power and the immunity to abuse it without consequence. This whole thing is only happening because of the Washington Post, not because any good cop did anything about his criminal coworkers. Get a fucking clue.
A good cop in a corrupt society is the same as a "good guy with a gun" in a society obsessed with guns and violence... such a tiny minority that they're pretty much non existent.
Cardinal Richelieu once a said, "If you give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest of men, I will find something in them which will hang him". Show me a cop in the US that's never taken a bribe, even just a sweetener for doing the right thing and I'll show you a liar. Even if just through the people who contribute t
Re:Learning (Score:5, Informative)
As a counterpoint, ACAB, actually. The "good cops" don't report the "bad cops", so they're also bad. Cops are vastly overrepresented in areas like domestic violence (which ties into stalking, as we're seeing here), they form fucking gangs and cheer each other on when they kill people (look up LA sheriff's department gangs), when democratically elected mayors want to put some checks and balances in place, they throw a fit and just don't follow orders, when they go on strike the crime rate goes down, they're basically never held accountable for what for anyone else would obviously be considered straight up murder, yeah, ACAB, a thousand times.
Re: Learning (Score:1)
I got down this far.
Three Wambaugh plots so far, can't wait to read the rest. /s
Re:Learning (Score:5, Interesting)
Cops are vastly overrepresented in areas like domestic violence
High stress jobs that require physical confrontation tend to do that. Military, corrections and policing all have this issue. Most police spend 90% of their time being bored. Less than 1% of the time is in physical conflict in most departments. But it can happen randomly at any time. Do you think that's a fun time? Linemen that work for electric companies are also over represented. High stress, unpredictable jobs that a person can get injured or killed doing are not great for mental health. Maybe departments should put more money into mental health programs for police. Weird how everyone wants more mental health for criminals but never discuss it for police.
they form fucking gangs and cheer each other on when they kill people (look up LA sheriff's department gangs)
That's one department. LAPD has been a mess for years. That's one out of 18,000 departments in the US. There are others that have/have had issues as well. But it's not the majority. LA is famously bad for a lot of government decisions. Most departments that have corruption issues are in areas where there is corruption in the government. You see it in small cities with corruption historically as well.
when they go on strike the crime rate goes down
I assume you're referring to NYC in 2024/2015. The number of complaints filed dropped by 5%, give or take, during that time period. That's not the same as how many crimes occurred. If people know it's a waste of time calling the police, then I would guess that the number of calls would drop.
Murders in NYC in 2013:335, 2014: 333, 2015: 352, 2016:335. The murder rate was lower than 2014 until 2020. AN aggregate of murder, rape, robbery, assault, burglary, grand larceny/of a motor vehicle were at a six year high of 111,335 in 2013. They went on a downward trend starting in 2014 at 106,722, 2015:105,453, 2016:101,716, 2017: 96,658, continuing to drop to 95,593 in 2020. The strike started in late December of 2014 and lasted 3 weeks. Theft and DUI's increase during that time of the year. Violent crimes are generally in hotter times. So the "strike" was irrelevant.
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But it's not the majority.
If that were true, you'd be able to respond to the question above:
Where are all the stories about all these good cops referring the bad cops to the DA?
There's evidence [slashdot.org] of hundreds of police officers abusing Flock, and so far there's only THIS STORY.
Police officers being charged is so rare, it even made news on Slashdot.
A few bad apples (Score:3)
Spoil the whole bunch
Re: Learning (Score:2)
Re: Learning (Score:5, Insightful)
You know what you've got when you've got one bad cop with nine bad cops covering for him?
Ten bad cops.
Re:Learning (Score:5, Interesting)
If you turn in corrupt NYC cops they raid your home and get you placed in a mental institution. https://www.nbcnewyork.com/new... [nbcnewyork.com]
So little has changed since Frank Serpico was shot in the face while his colleagues refused to call for an ambulance. A neighbor had to call.
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"So little has changed since Frank Serpico was shot in the face "
While Serpico was awarded a Medal of Honor, it was tossed at him over a desk and not in a ceremony with the associated certficate. THAT wasn't rectified until 2022 - FIFTY years later.
Even today most oldtimers and quite a few active duty still consider Serpico a self-serving traitor to the badge.
Reality denial (Score:3)
All of your "good" cops are complicit in the acts of the thieves, racists, and psychopaths. They more than tolerate it - they actively impede attempts to bring these criminals to justice. It is literally a mockery of justice by the very enforcers who are supposed to fight for it.
Anyone remember all the performative outrage about "Stop Snitching" stuff? Just another attack on rival gangs.
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-- Officer Joe Friday
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If the good apples are not restraining, retraining or arresting the bad ones, then they're almost as bad as the rotten bastards.
FYI, it wasn't until 2022, FIFTY ONE years after his departmental Medal of Honor was thrown onto his desk like a pack of smokes that the New York's Very Finest gave Frank Serpico an award ceremony and official certificate.
Re:Learning (Score:4, Insightful)
Yes, most police just do their job and keep their noses clean.
It's the few that don't that everyone tends to remember.
Here's the problem that the Military figured out a long time ago.
When you put on that uniform, you are no longer an individual. You represent a much larger group and, as such,
your actions / behaviors tend to reflect against the entire group instead of just upon yourself.
When someone in a police uniform does something stupid, the people don't remember " Ted the asshole cop ", they simply
remember " The Police ". When enough of these take place, reputation / perception of Law Enforcement as a whole tends to
go down. I would say said their reputation is probably at an all time low as of this writing.
This is why the Military is so harsh with their judgements / punishments for all of their members. They know it only takes a few
idiots before patience with ( insert a branch of the military here ) reaches a breaking point. This is also why the military has zero
issues with punishing EVERYBODY for something one or two idiots did the first night they got in from a deployment.
It's all about public perception / reputation.
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That's only when the PR shit hits the fan. Up to that point, it's cover-ups all the way down.
You know, just like any other organization full of petty office politics.
Re:Learning (Score:4, Interesting)
But they are the exception and not all or even the majority.
I agree with you, honestly I do. I have LEO buddies; funny, relaxed, sincerely looking out for anyone.
My issue, and I've had these discussion with them and hoping some tiny little bits are leaking into the system over time...is that the "good guys" can't really be good guys unless they are outing the bad guys internally just as aggressively as they are the bad guys externally. But every story I ever hear about CLEARLY bad cops is met with a stone wall of blue and that just doesn't align in my opinion.
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It's weird how when someone finds a fly in their soup the answer never seems to be to just add more soup.
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Re: Learning (Score:3)
Imagine if police treated each other like they treat ordinary citizens like myself, by assuming they are criminals until convinced otherwise.
No government surveillance without a warrant (Score:5, Insightful)
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I have to believe that also, the time frames and numbers here are just too wild that this was just an oversight, this is sanctioned behaviour. Thousands of searches? a dozen every day? With no warrant or having to check oversight for a reason for that many searches?
I also have to assume every search request is probably charged as well so did the taxpayers pay for these creeps to stalk women all day?
I appreciate cops making their own case for defind-the-police, obviously they have too much free time and acc
sanctioned???+there are 737k officers (Score:5, Insightful)
I have to believe that also, the time frames and numbers here are just too wild that this was just an oversight, this is sanctioned behaviour. Thousands of searches? a dozen every day? With no warrant or having to check oversight for a reason for that many searches?
I also have to assume every search request is probably charged as well so did the taxpayers pay for these creeps to stalk women all day?
I appreciate cops making their own case for defind-the-police, obviously they have too much free time and access to toys than they can be trusted with.
You're welcome to your opinion, but every cop I know today or have met would not condone this. There are approximately 737,000 full-time sworn law enforcement officers employed in the United States, according to recent Statista data. So a few assholes doing 1000s of searches, thinking they wouldn't be held accountable doesn't seem like a conspiracy to me. It seems like a few shitty cops thinking the rules don't apply to them.
Also, fuck off with the Defund the Police talk unless you're actively campaigning for a Trump 3rd term. Police who commit crimes need to be held accountable, just like citizens. You don't punish the entire police force. The same people that are victims of police misconduct are the most dependent on them to keep them safe from far worse criminals.
Look, you're having an emotional overreaction to misdeeds by police officers. However, if you're going to say "defund the police" I'm going to tell you to fuck off....that stupid shit helped get Trump elected. That makes people think democractic voters and liberals are a bunch of children with no common sense. There are a lot of people who never liked Democrats, but also don't like that diesel is $6.50 a gallon and that we're definitely not winning this war in Iran at the moment and the "dept of war" doesn't appear to have a clear plan. Some are finally seeing that "yeah, trump IS as corrupt as everyone said." Many votes are in play this Nov. Not as many as there should be, but there are folks that are curious as to what it would be like if grownups ran the gov and are considering not voting Republican... If they think the choice is more trumpism or nuts saying "Defund the Police" then you're really not making the alternatives compelling.
If you want to defund flock?...there's a reasonable argument there. However, I think you'd be a lot less smug and confident if it was your car that was stolen and the thief would have been caught if the cops could use an automated license plate reader, but were forbidden to because some dipshit stalked his ex. I don't know the right answer. I don't like cops committing crimes and stalking women. Apparently the ones in this report are having some sort of accountability, which seems good on the surface. However, I also want people harming me and and my family or stealing our stuff easily. I want to make life more difficult for criminals. So I don't think the answer is "Flock for everyone without a warrant or due process"...nor is it "No one can use surveillance technology in law enforcement ever!" The right answer is somewhere in the middle, IMHO.
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Wow found the cop or someone with one in their family. When the next NAZI regime forms they will need police to enact their torture and the police will always sign up to do it.
ACAB to you too motherfucker.
No, but a victim of crime, you bougie suburbanite (Score:2, Interesting)
Wow found the cop or someone with one in their family. When the next NAZI regime forms they will need police to enact their torture and the police will always sign up to do it.
ACAB to you too motherfucker.
A difference between you and is that I was actually a victim of violent crime and lived in the ghetto on the South Side of Chicago for 5 years in the 90s and I grew up near an even worse ghetto as a child. I got used to going to sleep at night with the sound of gunfire. When I first moved, I naively asked someone why people set off fireworks every night. I knew a dozen cops by name just from my neighborhood and I knew another dozen from my student jobs. I only know a few now because I live in an expen
Re: No, but a victim of crime, you bougie suburban (Score:2)
Cops commit a lot of violent crimes. Factor that in, boot sucker.
I bet you say this from a position of privilege (Score:2)
Cops commit a lot of violent crimes. Factor that in, boot sucker.
True, and they should be prosecuted as criminals. However, if your anger is directed more towards the police generally than the violent criminals they are hired to protect you against, I will be dollars to donuts, you're upper middle class and writing from a very safe neighborhood. Congrats to you! It's an accomplishment to be wealthy enough that you don't think about being a victim of violent crime. I didn't get there until my late 20s, myself. I couldn't help being born in poverty where I was much mo
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"Once you experience violent crime for yourself..."
I know people who have and for a few that violence was at the hands of police officers.
So what should they think after their complaints have been ignored and later subject to harassment?
A crime is a crime, 6 to 586 ratio in Chicago (Score:2)
"Once you experience violent crime for yourself..." I know people who have and for a few that violence was at the hands of police officers. So what should they think after their complaints have been ignored and later subject to harassment?
In Chicago in 2024, there were 586 homocides in Chicago and 6 fatal police involved shootings. When you live in a bad neighborhood you're 195x more likely to be killed by a criminal than a cop. Again...I don't want to be killed by a police officer, but the probability is MUCH MUCH MUCH more likely that I will be killed by a routine criminal.
So...they were a victim of a crime. The criminal happened to be a law enforcement officer. So you're advocating for less police? no police? I clearly stated th
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Asking for better police in the USA has been going on for much longer than I've been alive and that's quite a long time.
I've also been alive long enough to remember when overall crime was MUCH worse than today, almost everywhere and most police, again almost everywhere, fit into the ACAB designation.
But over time the police in every advanced Western nation became much better trained and much less of of a gang of bastards with one glaring exception.
BTW "defund the police" meant a lot of things, that are diff
Re: sanctioned???+there are 737k officers (Score:5, Insightful)
"You don't punish the entire police force."
You do if you want justice for the allegedly good cops breaking the law by covering for the clearly bad cops.
Re:sanctioned???+there are 737k officers (Score:5, Insightful)
You really should look up what defunding the police actually means.
Re:ackchyually!...what does it mean to swing voter (Score:5, Informative)
I implore you to spend just an hour of your time watching the very finest and best example of a police car chase you can find featuring US cops, one where they do everything by the book. And then watch a video of a good police car chase in the UK. The difference is vast. The UK police are so much more professional than the US police. But that's hardly a surprise, because the standards of recruitment and training are much higher. There's videos of European police officers asking questions and being stunned at how terrible US policing is.
Just watch this and listen:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
1m15s: "At this time, I deem it proportionate to continue. The driver is in full and proper control of their vehicle."
1m30s: "It is left left left Desborough Road... it is back down to low risk as we go left left left down Mayfield Road"
2m10s: "Heavy braking, Byron Close, prepare for decamp on Byron Close"
Then look at the arrest itself at 3m. It's almost friendly -- the officer says "mate" in the middle of it, FFS.
Your police forces are systemically inadequate, and what "defund the police" ought to mean, despite the nonsense you're spouting, is the kind of transformation that led to the abolition of the irredeemable Royal Ulster Constabulary at the end of the Troubles, and its replacement with the Police Service of Northern Ireland, which has made a huge difference to the quality, culture and reception of policing there.
People like you, who think themselves so centrist and sensible, are a fucking disaster zone. You're not being centrist. Centrist is pushing for European-equivalent standards. You're simping for authoritarian inadequacy, and claiming that communities in the US must live with a patently failing status quo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
By the way, the difference in governance between the US and UK on the use of ANPR / ALPR is a striking example of just how bad the US is. The UK's ANPR operates within a nationally defined governance and audit framework, is governed primarily as a public policing capability with clear lines of institutional responsibility, has a formal national compliance and auditing architecture, and has up-front enforced rules on purpose limitation, proportionality, retention, access controls and data governance. The story that is described here just would not be possible in the UK, alarm bells would have gone off pretty much immediately. The US is a fucking backwater.
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The UK police are so much more professional than the US police.
I don't think so mate [google.com]
Google doesn't even need more context than that to call bullshit.
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Oh yes, because it's well known that the way you work out which police force is more professional is, you look for a single example of the one you don't like doing something terrible, and then you've proved your point. You definitely don't think about training standards, governance standards, restrictions on uses of ALPRs/ANPRs, militarisation, or, if we're going to be twatty about egregious examples of failings, fucking Uvalde. No sirree, we just do our motivated reasoning in public like a twat and conside
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Sure, that's the only example of British police picking the "wrong side" in confrontations...
It's not a recurring controversy at all...
See your anecdote with another random one
UK chases are no different [youtube.com]
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You’re the one that’s made an assertion based on anecdotes, nobber, not me. I’m the one that was talking about systemic factors such as training and governance, on which you are conspicuously silent.
And finally, I just watched your supposed counter-example, and boy was that a wild self-own on your part. Throughout the entire chase, the officers were continually assessing risk, giving clear information about the direction of the absconding vehicle, talking in calm voices despite the incredi
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Your "proof" was a reaction video about all of Europe
You've clearly never seen an average America video either, they're identical. It's just anecdotes all round.
You didn't seen in the video that they assessed it as high risk multiple times but continued on anyway...
You didn't see the car almost lose control when they hit it with other traffic nearby. Only luck it didn't hit anything. You're clearly biased and delusional.
Funniest when they're smashing windows screaming and dragging them out throwing them
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The thing is with quote marks, you need to use them around something that the other person said. I didn’t say “proof”. That was your word. And I have specifically pointed to particular factors, you dimwit. I will mention a couple of them for a *third time*: governance and training. Do you really fucking need me to go show you the governance rules for ANPR in the UK? I can do, but how fucking tiresome, when the answer is exactly as I said it, the governance rules (a) exist and (b) are exten
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I know exactly what you mean it doesn't fucking matter, the perception by those exposed to right wing media is that "Defund the Police" is a nicer way of saying abolish them.
Did you seriously just blame him for RWNJ media's lies? Perhaps we should stop allowing RWNJ media to spew constant FUD and lies.
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Yeah, but what about those who are uncommitted? (Score:2)
To those exposed to the right wing media it doesn't matter what you call it since they will demonise it anyway. You could call it "increase the funds to the police" and they would still claim that the left was planning to put police officers in concentration camps.
You're absolutely correct. The hardcore rightwing nutjobs will twist the truth any way to ensure their narrative survives, even if it means completely denying reality, but there are many voters who are in play who are not hardcore. They're often not well informed, so they hear from their right wing nutjob buddy that the democrats want to bring communism and abolish the police...and their left of center friends scold them for not picking up the nuance of their horrible messaging and branding. Remember, th
You do know criminals (Score:3)
What I'm saying is that your cop buddies aren't likely to tell you that they think it's cool to spy on ex's using police resources. But based on a lot of the statistics we have about them at least 40% do...
If nothing else getting ammo to win a divorce is something you can get a lot of people behind regardless of how the in
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However, I think you'd be a lot less smug and confident if it was your car that was stolen
The police aren't going to find your stolen car with or without flock. That's not what they do.
They also don't stop thieves who steal catalytic converters.
There is definitely room to ask, "What exactly are the police accomplishing?"
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When the overall economy does better, that means people can work and afford to pay their bills, and crime isn't needed to survive. When the economy goes down, more people need to steal to afford to feed themselves and their family. Trump is driving the economy down, so crime is increasing, but violent crimes can still go down even as other crimes increase. The desperate won't necessarily go to violent crimes.
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Understand the word "multivariate" challenge: impossible
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Oh you got me good! TDS amirite?!?!
And you're right. I don't hate Trump enough, I need to hate him and his cadre of fucktards more.
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"I am your father's, brother's, nephew's, cousin's, former roommate."
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What government party was in power when that happened?
I agree MAGA and Reform and the Tories should not be allowed in Western countries! They are traitors and cannot be trusted with our borders!
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The police force seem like the ones who take any attack on any of them as attack on all of them, they seem allergic to oversight and what they do get is done kicking and screaming, the entire culture got built around these concepts and that's a big root of the problem with today's police in my opinion, the culture is kinda rotten and that swallows up the good cops even when they are the majority. There's a reason we call them bad apples, that thing they do, it erodes trust.
The story of a cop, a shitty cop
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I think you'd be a lot less smug and confident if it was your car that was stolen and the thief would have been caught if the cops could use an automated license plate reader, but were forbidden to because some dipshit stalked his ex. I don't know the right answer.
The right answer is obvious to anyone who's considered this for even a second. It's got two main parts: End Qualified Immunity, make the standards for becoming a cop much higher, institute a mandatory national database of cops ineligible for rehire due to committing crimes in uniform.
Right now you get out of community college and into a police department. That's laughable. By definition you've got a bunch of young-ass cops who don't know shit about shit running around out there. Then they also by definition
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I think it should be more like demanding to see CCTV footage (that was also taken in the past) in that you can obtain data only for specific addresses/cameras specified in the warrant. Then if there's reasonable suspicion that certain nearby cameras would also contain information pertinent to this investigation, you would go and get a warrant for data from those cameras, too. Rinse and repeat. Tha
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Correct, it is a long-solved problem with no new difference other than public outrage at abuses.
It is terrible that a private corporation seeks to profit in this manner, but that's an entirely different issue. All sorts of entities generate security footage for private reasons, with that footage obtainable using a judge's order. Nothing to see here.
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Police generally don't need a warrant to request security camera footage or obtain it voluntarily. They need a warrant to compel the owner to give it to them.
Whether the owner volunteers footage and under what conditions they do so is pretty much up to them. Ring used to be pretty free about it but clamped down when it became controversial. Public sources like traffic cameras are likewise up to the public agency or government that owns them and they often have privacy laws or policies that might require war
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As a layman, that makes perfect sense. As a lawyer the story might be different. We all know that it's not entrapment as long as the police get a camera crew to entrap for them. A popular TV show was based on exploitation of that.
If someone burglarizes your house, is your neighbor's security camera footage unusable because it was gathered before a warrant? Isn't a private security camera's intention to capture someone doing something bad, just like Flock?
"Thus it is government surveillance prior to a wa
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Don't know what entrapment is, do ya? Here's a hint: if the criminals were going to commit the act anyway, it's not entrapment.
correction (Score:3)
Five Police Officers Criminally Charged for Misusing Flock Cameras in Indianapolis so far
Re:correction (Score:4, Interesting)
12 lookups a day for 10 months (Score:4, Interesting)
And this guy carries a gun and can shoot people with impunity. Just imagine what he's already gotten away with.
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Yeah, stalking your ex every hour on the hour while you're supposed to be upholding the law is totally normal.
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Systemic problem bigger than Flock here... (Score:5, Interesting)
People are getting angry about officers mis-using Flock to stalk or spy on ex's and other women they meet. But the bigger problem is the law enforcement culture itself. This has been going on for decades now, with very little real effort to change things. It's pretty much common knowledge that police have one of the higher rates of divorce and relationship issues. It's the type of job where people wear the uniform and are given some power over the general public, with the assertion that they're only there to "protect and serve" you. Women are generally attracted to both men in uniform and men who want to act as a protector.
Combine that with the job of a police officer involving constant interaction with random people in public, and you have a perfect storm to tempt a cop into cheating on a significant other or to take advantage of their position to stalk one of them.
IMO, this is called "being human" ... In any large enough group of people, you'd have a percentage who'd justify this type of behavior as worth the risk when it's about sex/relationships. But the law enforcement culture is more about "brother looking out for brother". The police think they're part of a special group who are generally above the "lesser" laws that interfere with what they feel needs to be done. I've watched plenty of them exceed posted speed limits when they aren't running traffic enforcement themselves. I've seen them turn on the lights and sirens briefly, to get through traffic so they're not late for lunch with someone. So sure, they'd do a few plate lookups to track people they know, if they've got some personal excuse to do it. More needs to be done to audit and monitor police behavior and discipline them when they're in the wrong. Saying "it's a tough job" or "it's risky vs what they're paid" or anything like that is no justification.
Re: Systemic problem bigger than Flock here... (Score:2, Insightful)
It's not even risky for what they are paid. Being a janitor is MUCH more likely to kill you and doesn't pay nearly as well. Fuck their crying about the job. Being an RV repairman is more dangerous as well, working on gas and electrical and being on the roofs of wobbly RVs, I've done that so I don't want to hear any shit about cops' job being dangerous. Fucking crybabies should try getting a real job.
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The Mexican roofers they help kidnap have way more dangerous jobs.
So cops are kind of dumb (Score:2)
It is extraordinarily expensive to train a police officer. Much of this expense is because of corruption. Most of the training that we give them these days is pseudo-military training that looks cool to idiots. Think gravy seals. But we still have to pay for it all and the city has to pay for it.
The upshot to that is doing the actual job is incredibly boring. It's mostly pulling people over and giving them tickets. Something like 70% of pol
Anger at Flock is not enough (Score:5, Insightful)
Everyone is focusing on Flock, but there are lots of other companies where law enforcement gets this or similar data from. Focusing on Flock will not save us from this. The only thing that will is pestering our elected officials to change the laws. Law enforcement long ago figured out that they could get around constitutional rights when data comes from non-governmental companies. The only thing that is going to fix this is the laws being updated to the point that anything that government needs a warrant for if they do directly, would also need a warrant if they use non-governmental data. Otherwise we will just be chasing our tails from one company to the next.
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what people are circulating: "this is a result of Flock, Flock is bad"
what people should be circulating: "this is a result of panopticons"
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Everyone is focusing on Flock, but there are lots of other companies where law enforcement gets this or similar data from.
Well yeah, of course people are focusing on Flock. Out of all of the various systems, Flock is the one that is most clearly and brightly against the US Constitution. It is blatantly illegal with no possible excuse... and yet it still exists. WTF?
On the up side (Score:3)
If convicted, these police officers will get to be on the other side of the camera, either in segregate/solitary housing or staring in a new series, "The Housewives of Prison."
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Oh you think they’ll do jail time?
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Apparently looking up your ex-wife on Flock is the new choking out a black guy. Well, that's progress I guess!
I live in Indianapolis my father was murdered (Score:4)
higher standard (Score:5, Insightful)
The Police get protection for Qualified Immunity. In order to have that Police should be held to a higher standard of conduct. We expect better of soldiers in war zones than we do of Police in our own cities.
These guys should get the book thrown at them, twice.
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"With great power comes great responsibility."
- Voltaire (or Spider Man)
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Qualified immunity is made up by the courts. It's not a law.
A gym is a Walmart? (Score:5)
This is why the Oxford comma is used.
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Good job, Indiana. (Score:1)
Make two or more have to sign off (Score:2)
Only 5? (Score:3)
Only 5?
Seems like a department that size would almost certainly have more than 5 instances of abuse.
It's all just spin: (Score:2)
We caught the bad guys so you don't have to worry about Flock deployments anymore.
No 2FA (Score:2)