I’m assuming that most of y’all remember Jarts. If you don’t, then look them up.
To get straight to the point of the comparison, Jarts were a lot of fun until people started getting stupid and throwing them at other peoples’ heads. And then they got taken off the shelves. And so it is, and should be, with Flock cameras and law enforcement.
They can’t use the tools they have properly and they start doing the law enforcement equivalent of throwing a two foot dart at someone else. Usually their spouses, exes, or anyone upon whom they want to keep tabs.
From improper use, to just plain stupidity, the boys and girls in blue are proving that they cannot be trusted with the information that anyone with a badge can access. That’s the problem with warrantless searches or the collection of broad swathes of information on people who have done nothing but go about their lives.
The Supreme Court ruled that cell phone tower dumps (aka geofencing warrant) that collects data anyone who has been in the vicinity of a specific tower in order to track down a single person is an unconstitutional violation of privacy.
It would be nice to have the same logic applied to the Flock system. It needs to go the way of Jarts.
ETA: Expect a lot of ‘news/propaganda’ from state and local gendarmes regarding the usefulness of the cameras. One already crossed my feed about how they found a guy with dementia who had driven off across state lines. They know that their toy is about to be taken away from them.
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