Okay, have you noticed those little cameras popping up on poles around LA and Orange County?
They’re called Flock cameras, and they’re basically AI-powered license plate readers. When you drive past one, it can capture your license plate along with details about your car…
And that information goes into a searchable database that law enforcement can use to help find stolen cars, suspects or missing people.
But people are starting to question just how much these things are tracking us.
This has gotten so controversial in Costa Mesa which has 46 of these things…that residents have been showing up at City Hall demanding they come down. There was even a case where former Costa Mesa police officer used Flock data to track his wife and his ex-girlfriend.
LAPD recently stopped its regular access to Flock data while it negotiates new privacy safeguards, but there are still 138 Flock cameras operating in the LA.
If you’re curious, there’s a crowdsourced website called DeFlock where you can pull up a map and see reported Flock cameras around your neighborhood… which is slightly creepy, but also absolutely something I’m about to do.