You're Being Tracked

Thousands of mass surveillance cameras have been installed in our cities without our informed consent. We are a team of citizens working with our city councils to halt this threat to our privacy and civil liberties. Our mission is to have an Arizona free of mass surveillance, and to Live Free AZ. Please join us.TRIUMPH IN SEDONA!
On September 9 the Sedona City Council voted unanimously 7-0 to terminate the Flock contract and take down the cameras. Sedona is the first city in Arizona to terminate their contract and remove the surveillance cameras. Our united front of citizens caused an unprecedented shift for freedom!PRESS

TEMPLATE FOR REMOVING SURVEILLANCE CAMERAS IN YOUR CITY

  • File a public records request on your city’s website to see if they have a Flock contract

  • Create a group of 3-4 residents who work well together

  • Meet with a member of your city council to schedule an agenda item about the issue

  • Once you have an agenda item, use all your resources to invite residents to attend and comment

  • Find a local reporter who is interested in this issue (Jen Barber [email protected] is an investigative journalist in Phoenix who reported extensively on our story). Write OpEd pieces in the local newspapers

  • Set up a table at farmers markets, pickleball courts, etc. distributing postcards and hand deliver them to city hall. Email and meet with city council members

  • Prepare your comments, deliver what you will say into the mirror so it flows and is under the time limit. You want to feel confident and powerful when you speak

  • After the council meeting, you will know what steps to take next

  • If the contract is not canceled at this meeting, keep the pressure on. They need to know the residents will not give up on this, that they are watching, and they will persist politely until the cameras are taken down

  • This issue is supported by people all across the political spectrum, from liberal to libertarian, so you will need to work with people you normally wouldn't

  • When the Flock contract is terminated and the cameras are down, have a party with everyone, invite the city council members and mayor!

POSTCARDS

POSTER

FLOCK TALKING POINTS
Shawn Dow, AZ Campaign for Liberty
1. These ain’t your grandfather’s license plate readers. Some pro government surveillance cameras will say this technology has been around for decades which is only partially true. The tech to recognize a plate and compare it to a hit list of those who are suspected of crimes has been around but not a centralized, searchable database that tracks and records the movements of EVERY SINGLE DRIVER whether or not they are even suspected of a crime. New integrations of Flock with AI and facial recognition cameras are increasing the concern for privacy and potential abuses.
2. The Camera company has exaggerated or even lied about it’s safety impact and effectiveness. In one city Flock claimed crime had gone down and it actually went up. In Baytown, Texas the clearance rate on stolen vehicles actually went down after installing Flock cameras. More than 97% of stolen vehicles cases are not recovered or cases cleared despite having Flock cameras for years.
3. This is an unconstitutionally broad search casting a wide drag net to scoop up private information such as where you worship, what doctor you are going to, when your 16 year old daughter is home and you are not, which politicians you are meeting with can all be used by those with bad intentions. There are zero state or federal guardrails on how long this data can be kept, who can have access to it and for what reasons.
4. The abuses are real and widespread. Police officers have been arrested or fired for using Flock to stalk citizens like their ex wives. A sheriff used LPR technology to scan the license plates of every vehicle attending his opponent’s fundraiser to build an enemies list. Flock has admitted they have violated state law numerous times including sharing local data with federal authorities and failing to get the required licenses to do business in several states. Flock then lied about not knowing they needed a license.
5. A federal judge in Virgina has determined that there is enough merit to allow a federal civil rights violation lawsuit to proceed against the local government and flock over it being an unlawful 4th amendment search. That case is scheduled to hear arguments soon.
6. Flock refuses to have their equipment independently tested by a third party system to verify their claims and effectiveness even though it is an industry standard and their competitors have.
7. Flock’s own guidelines say that any government thinking of bringing Flock cameras in should have a town hall to get community buy in. All facts related to this system including the potential for abuse and violations of our more basic constitutional rights should be discussed before moving forward.
8. Several cities including Austin and San Marcos, TX have shut down their flock camera programs after showing little evidence they are effective and after massive public outrage over privacy concerns. Cities in other states like Colorado are considering removing them as well.
9. More dangerous that photo radar. At least with photo radar you just get a ticket in the mail so you know when your were scanned and actually accused of breaking the law. With Flock they never disclose how much information they have on your movements, what they do with your private information and who has access to it.
10. Any restrictions such as retention time, access to the data, how flock can use the data are all voluntary and self imposed. They can change at any time. There are no civil or criminal penalties for breaking these rules.
11. Despite Flock’s claim that they cannot use local agency data for other purposes the language in their standard contract grants them an unlimited perpetual license to use the data. If they want to sell your data to marketers who want to know who shops at home depot or sees who visits a urologist so they can advertise ED drugs to them nothing would legally prohibit it and they would not need to disclose it.
12. Mistaken identity has happened and will continue to happen. Flock cameras, like any other cameras can misread plates. In one case when this happened an entire family was taken out of their vehicle at gunpoint because flock identified it as a stolen vehicle.
13. Due to delays in reporting that stolen vehicles have been recovered and cleared from the system, if you report your car stolen because you don’t see it in your driveway but forgot your wife was using it that hit list showing your car as stolen could be active for days or weeks causing you to get pulled over for stealing your own vehicle.
14. We used to point out one of the differences between us and communist countries was that we don’t spy on our citizens. That isn’t the case any more. This technology is being used currently in China to impose social credit scores, identify dissidents, and to help with intellectual property theft.
15. Flock cameras can easily be upgraded to automatic ticket cameras. If there is another covid style lockdown Flock cameras will be used to penalize anyone who decides to leave their house to go to the grocery store or doctor.