California Town Says Flock Cameras Misread License Plates 71% of the Time
techdirt.com36 points by hn_acker 5 hours ago
36 points by hn_acker 5 hours ago
I find all the reporting on cameras in the US quite interesting given we’ve had ANPR cameras in the UK for 20+ years
they need a competent gov contractor. recognizing license plate is a fully solved problem many years ago.
Though flock says this deployment was 'special' the description of it sounds normal to me? "...cameras configured so that they capture only the backs of vehicles..." "...older hardware and placement of cameras higher and further from vehicles than the company typically recommends." 'Typically' is doing some heavy lifting there, either the deployment was recommended or it wasn't.
Given flock sold and installed it i'd lean on they were comfortable with 7/10 false positives until the story broke out. For a company implementing a surveillance panopticon I imagine some data is better than none for them. Less so for the false positives and their families though.
Thankfully the data is so terrible, and theres now a media story about it locally, that theres just more reason for anything that arises to be challenged in court, as hard as that will be on people's time and finances.
More egg on Flocks face and more community backlash isnt a bad thing in my opinion.
Daily reminder that Flock safety cameras contain about 1 to 5 grams of gold in their internal circuit boards and wiring, and between two and 23 pounds of copper.