Latest / The Kevin Stone Podcast / #8 Flock Cameras- Big Brother, But With a License Plate Reader

Transcript

#8 Flock Cameras- Big Brother, But With a License Plate Reader · The Kevin Stone Podcast

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  Speaker 1: The content of this program. It's where entertainment purposes only,
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  Speaker 1: mainly the entertainment of the program creator. If at anytime you
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  Speaker 1: it again. It stark hasn't presented by the content creator's
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  Speaker 1: so accurate it is illegal. In fourteen states. You were
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  Speaker 1: listening to the Kevin Stone podcast broadcasting to you from
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  Speaker 1: an unknown location, customized messier. Let's begin by cleaning those years. Tom,
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  Speaker 1: I'm a nobody. I just happened to have a camera
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  Speaker 1: and a microphone and an Internet connection, which makes me
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  Speaker 1: a superstar. I have beef anteladas in the oven. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: and you make them? Or are they frozen so they
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  Speaker 1: won't be frozen? In about thirty five minutes. Today, we're
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  Speaker 1: talking about something that's becoming more common on roads across
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  Speaker 1: the country. Flock cameras. You may have seen them, those
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  Speaker 1: cameras mounted on poles, usually sitting there looking innocent like
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  Speaker 1: they're just enjoying the weather. They're not. They're watching cars. And,
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  Speaker 1: depending on how you feel about privacy, public safety, and
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  Speaker 1: the government, knowing where your vehicle has been, flock cameras
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  Speaker 1: are either a fantastic crime fighting tool or the beginning
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  Speaker 1: of the surveillance state, and maybe, just maybe they're a
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  Speaker 1: little bit of both, so let's talk about it. Flock
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  Speaker 1: cameras are designed to capture information about vehicles, particularly license plates.
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  Speaker 1: They can help law enforcement identify vehicles connected to crimes,
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  Speaker 1: locate stolen cars, and investigate incidents. And let's be honest,
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  Speaker 1: if someone steals your car, you probably don't care one
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  Speaker 1: bit about privacy when you want the car found, You
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  Speaker 1: want somebody to find it. You want your car back.
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  Speaker 1: You want the person who stole it to explain why
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  Speaker 1: they thought taking your twenty twelve FOURD escape was a
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  Speaker 1: good life decision. So that's the first major pro they
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  Speaker 1: can help solve crimes. Flock cameras give investigators another tool
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  Speaker 1: when they're trying to figure out where a suspect vehicle went.
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  Speaker 1: Maybe there's a robbery, maybe there's a hit and run,
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  Speaker 1: maybe a stolen vehicle is traveling through town. A camera
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  Speaker 1: system can potentially provide investigators with information that would otherwise
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  Speaker 1: take hours or days to piece together. And that's useful
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  Speaker 1: because unfortunately, criminals don't always leave a business card behind.
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  Speaker 1: They don't exactly stop at the scene and say, hey,
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  Speaker 1: I'm Steve. Here's my phone number. Call me if the
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  Speaker 1: police have a question. Wouldn't that make things easier? Probably not,
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  Speaker 1: So cameras can help fill in some of those gaps.
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  Speaker 1: There's another big advantage. If your vehicle is stolen, every
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  Speaker 1: minute matters, and network of cameras can potentially alert law
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  Speaker 1: enforcement when a vehicle matching a stolen vehicle report is detected.
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  Speaker 1: And that's good technology being used for a good purpose.
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  Speaker 1: Anything that helps recover stolen property is worth considering. Here's
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  Speaker 1: another argument in favor of flock cameras. If criminals no
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  Speaker 1: cameras are watching, maybe they'll think twice before committing a crime.
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  Speaker 1: I'm not saying every criminal sees a camera and immediately says, well, boys,
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  Speaker 1: let's pack it up. The jig is officially jiggled, but
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  Speaker 1: no one there's a better chance of being identified could
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  Speaker 1: influence someone's deay, and that's the whole idea behind deterrence.
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  Speaker 1: Sometimes the possibility of getting caught is enough, but now
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  Speaker 1: we get to the part where things become a little
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  Speaker 1: more uncomfortable, because every technology that gives us more security
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  Speaker 1: also raises questions about how that technology is used, and
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  Speaker 1: that's where the cons come in. Let's start with the
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  Speaker 1: obvious one, privacy. Your vehicle isn't just a vehicle. It
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  Speaker 1: can reveal where you go, your home, your workplace, the
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  Speaker 1: doctor's office, grocery store, a friend's house, a church, political rally,
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  Speaker 1: a protest, a bar, a divorce attorney. Okay, maybe the
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  Speaker 1: last one was oddly specific, but you get the point.
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  Speaker 1: Where your vehicle goes can tell a story about your life.
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  Speaker 1: And that's why people have legitimate concerns about systems that
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  Speaker 1: can collect vehicle location information. The question isn't necessarily should
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  Speaker 1: cameras help solve crimes? Most people would probably say yes.
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  Speaker 1: The bigger question is how much information should be collected,
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  Speaker 1: how long should it be kept, who gets access to it,
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  Speaker 1: and under what circumstances. Here's a phrase that everybody should remember,
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  Speaker 1: mission creep. That's when something starts out with one purpose
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  Speaker 1: and gradually expands into something much bigger. Maybe the original
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  Speaker 1: idea is we're going to use these cameras to help
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  Speaker 1: locate stolen vehicles. Sounds reasonable. Then somebody says, well, since
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  Speaker 1: we've got the system, maybe we can use it for this,
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  Speaker 1: and maybe for that and eventually you're sitting at home
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  Speaker 1: eating a sandwich while wondering whether your license plate has
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  Speaker 1: a better travel history than you do. Technology tends to
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  Speaker 1: expand that's why policies and limitations matter. Con Number three
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  Speaker 1: false identification. Technology isn't perfect. Computers make mistakes, cameras have limitations,
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  Speaker 1: license plates can be dirty, damaged, obscured, or difficult to read.
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  Speaker 1: And when technology is used in law enforcement, mistakes can
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  Speaker 1: have real consequences. A wrong vehicle identification isn't just an
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  Speaker 1: annoying computer glitch. It could lead to someone being stopped, questioned, investigated,
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  Speaker 1: or worse. That's why human judgment still matters. The computer
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  Speaker 1: should simply be a tool. It shouldn't become judge, jury,
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  Speaker 1: and traffic cop. Because let's be honest, we've all had
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  Speaker 1: technology get something wrong. I've had autocorrect turn completely innocent
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  Speaker 1: text messages and at things that required a lawyer. So
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  Speaker 1: maybe let's not let the computer run the entire justice
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  Speaker 1: system just yet. This episode is brought to you by
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: common sense common sense because sometimes the answer isn't more technology.
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  Speaker 1: Sometimes the answer is maybe we should think about this
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: for five minutes. First, common sense available absolutely everywhere. Unfortunately,
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: not everyone has it. Did you know that if you
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  Speaker 1: All right, we're back with con number four. Who controls
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  Speaker 1: the data? This might be one of the biggest questions
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  Speaker 1: of all. Who owns the information? Who can access it?
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  Speaker 1: Can local police departments share it with other agencies? How
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  Speaker 1: long is their information stored? Can citizens find out what
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  Speaker 1: information exist about them? Can that information be used for
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  Speaker 1: purposes beyond what the public originally expected? These are questions
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  Speaker 1: that communities should be asking. And here's the thing. You
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  Speaker 1: don't have to be anti police to ask these questions.
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  Speaker 1: You don't have to be paranoid. You don't have to
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  Speaker 1: wear a tenfol of hat while sitting in your basement
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  Speaker 1: listening to conspiracy podcasts. You can simply believe that government
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  Speaker 1: surveillance should have rules. That's not radical. That's called accountability.
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  Speaker 1: Here's where I land on the whole flock camera debate.
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  Speaker 1: I don't think the answer is simply flock cameras are great,
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  Speaker 1: And I don't think the answer is flock cameras are evil.
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  Speaker 1: Technology isn't automatically good or bad. How we use it matters.
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  Speaker 1: If cameras help recover stolen vehicles, identify dangerous suspects, and
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  Speaker 1: solve serious crimes, that's a good thing. But if we're
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  Speaker 1: going to collect information about where people drive, there should
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  Speaker 1: be clear rules, There should be transparency, there should be limits,
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  Speaker 1: there should be accountability, and there should be consequences when
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  Speaker 1: somebody abuses the system. Because here's the uncomfortable truth. Most
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  Speaker 1: people don't think much about privacy until they realize they've
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  Speaker 1: lost it. It's easy to say, I don't care if
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  Speaker 1: the track may I've got nothing to hide. But privacy
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  Speaker 1: isn't just about hiding something. Privacy is about having some
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  Speaker 1: control over your personal life. You shouldn't have to be
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  Speaker 1: a criminal to care about privacy, and you shouldn't have
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  Speaker 1: to sacrifice public safety to care about privacy either. We
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  Speaker 1: should be capable of doing both. That's the challenge. Use
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  Speaker 1: technology to protect people without turning every citizen into ass
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  Speaker 1: That's a line worth watching because technology isn't going away.
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  Speaker 1: Cameras aren't going away, And the question isn't whether we're
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  Speaker 1: going to live in a world with more surveillance. We're
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  Speaker 1: already there. The question is who sets the rules, and
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  Speaker 1: perhaps more importantly, who watches the watchers that's going to
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  Speaker 1: to agree with me, you don't even have to like me.
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  Speaker 1: But if I'm talking about something that affects your community,
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  Speaker 1: maybe it's worth paying attention. I'm Kevin Stone. Thanks for listening.