Cities ditch Flock, replace with Axon license-plate readers

Flock has justifiably received tons of outrage, but Axon (and a bunch of other companies) are also purveyors of mass surveillance. Canceling a Flock contract and replacing it with an Axon one is just changing your flavor of authoritarianism.

New from 404 Media: around the country, cities are ditching Flock. But in many cases, immediately replacing Flock with Axon cameras. These clamp to an existing streetlamp so harder to spot. May be harder for public to know what cops are using the cameras for www.404media.co/cities-are-d...

NEW: Rather than get rid of ALPR cameras entirely after backlash to Flock, many cities and towns are switching to Axon, whose cameras can be mounted to an existing streetlamp, helping them blend into their surroundings.

Police departments keep replacing Flock with Axon, Motorola, and other brands of tech. Same privacy violations, different flavors. Get all of them out.

A bunch of cities are getting rid of one problem and immediately replacing it with another: www.404media.co/cities-are-d...

Flock vs Axon Flock is funded by Silicon Valley's Marc Andreessen, Peter Thiel, and Sam Altman's firms Axon is funded by Wall Street and Private Equity firms Blackrock, Vanguard, and State Street Trump has invested $5 million in Axon Our President is financially invested in mass surveillance

🚨 53 cities have replaced their Flock AI surveillance cameras with new hidden cameras made by Axon. What is going on here?! 🧐 James Li 👇 🤬🤬🤬

ACLU of Massachusetts had a good article recently making the distinction between speed cameras/red light cameras and automated license plate readers like Flock, so it's good to see some nuance out there www.aclum.org/news/were-pr...

Axon does a ton of work for police departments: body cams, data analysis, AI, drones, robots, VR, etc. They’re also the company that makes TASER. Flock is a relative newcomer to this market, but Axon has been helping cops surveil and attack people for a long, long time.

The local paper recently did a piece on Flock cameras in my area. I checked the comments on FB fully expecting to see people in favor. Articles on ICE activity and bike lanes have brought out right-wing assholes, so I thought this would too. But 90% of the comments were anti Flock and Axon.

Here's the thing--rather than replace Flock with the company that wants to put taser on drones, why don't we just spend all this money on addressing the root causes of crime and not just creating a massive surveillance theater stalking machine.

Surprise! Cities are rapidly ditching Flock, only to sign up with a more embedded alternative, Axon. www.404media.co/cities-are-d...

"Mooresville police are looking into at least 10 officers who may have illegally accessed Flock Safety camera data after one officer was arrested on Wednesday for doing so." 🤦‍♂️ #Flock #DeFlock #Axon #Surveillance

With the rising backlash to Flock, some cities are ditching them for a nearly identical product from another company. Including ALPR cameras in patrol cars.

Preview of a discussion by activists across the US southeast (incl @sassisouth.bsky.social ) organizing against #Flock, #Fusus, #Axon, #realtimecrimecenter & trends in state surveillance in cities across the region. Join for $3/month or more to get early access! www.patreon.com/tfsr/posts/d...