Standing near a nondescript black pole topped with a solar panel on a leafy side street lined by family homes in an Atlanta exurb, Noah* confesses that he feels an immense sense of disquiet as the US heads into the midterm elections. And I think that Flock is a massive step into these surveillance states that we have the ability to decide whether or not we are okay with,” said the 27-year-old software engineer. The cameras scan licence plates and capture, analyse and store details of passing vehicles, including location, time, car models and bumper stickers.
The surveillance cameras emerged as a lightning-rod campaign issue across the US amid a backlash against AI, alarm over the sweeping power of the technology and questions about the unchecked growth of the industry as President Donald Trump pushes a pro-tech agenda. In Atlanta, capital of the southern state of Georgia and a city that has gained a reputation as one of the country’s fastest-growing technology hubs, candidates were repeatedly grilled about their positions on AI and the little cameras, topped with solar umbrellas, that have sprouted up across the state, earning the wrath of many Georgians. When the two candidates were asked about the cameras during the only televised debate in the gubernatorial race to replace Georgia’s outgoing Republican Governor Brian Kemp, Democratic hopeful Keisha Lance Bottoms noted that, “the challenge that we have with Flock cameras and other licence-plate reader technologies is that the technology has gotten ahead of the policy”.
When pressed on her platform on the issue, Bottoms said she was “not opposed to a moratorium on Flock cameras”. Her Republican rival, Rick Johnson, said he “would not put a moratorium” on Flock cameras “because I don’t want crime to go up”. The billionaire, whose business connections with a Texas data centrehave been under scrutiny in the Atlanta press, said he would instead “fix” the AI camera problem.
The televised exchange nailed the arguments for and against the hi-tech cameras. Flock Safety says the cameras help law enforcement officials fight crime by connecting “vehicle sightings across jurisdictions to uncover patterns, strengthen investigations, and securely collaborate with trusted partners”, according to the company website. But critics concerned about security breaches and privacy issues are not persuaded.
Their numbers are growing across the US, with their opposition getting increasingly vocal, visual and visceral. Strolling down the streets of Woodstock, an affluent, predominantly White area of Cherokee County in northern Atlanta, Noah says he watched the gubernatorial candidates debate the Flock camera issue and was not impressed. They would either say that they were OK with it, or they would look into it, or they just wanted some sort of guardrail on it, whereas Flock cameras already have guardrails and they’ve been broken over and over and over again,” he noted.
Noah knows a thing or two about Flock guardrail failures. In his free time, the young software engineer volunteers as one of the coordinators of DeFlock Cherokee, a local chapter of a larger, decentralised DeFlock movement that tracks Flock and other AI-driven surveillance cameras across the US. DeFlock Cherokee volunteer Noah uses his software skills to raise awareness of the dangers of AI-driven surveillance cameras. © Samia Metheni, FRANCE 24 In Cherokee – a county with a population of around 260,000 – alone, there have been a number of high-profile cases of breaches that have made headlines in recent months.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
