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Well done. These cameras should be illegal.
Replacing the stolen license plate readers will cost Winona roughly $24,000 total.
Why is it up to the city to foot the bill for the losses of a private company?
Probably in the contract. Hard to say without seeing it.
Brilliant, pay for the hardware, and then pay for the fully automated service it provides! 🤡
That's called a service. Just like your mother used to provide.
Why do you think they have so many "convenience fees"
But how else will cops stalk ex girlfriends?
Because the city/PD wants it. That's why they're paying for it, and why they'll probably pay for the new ones.
Because they want to manufacture whatever stance they can to make themselves look like the poor victim of some "unhinged" vigilante to turn the public against heroes like this. News stations have been hammering this point on stories like this. "Oh, poor children in our city are going to go hungry now because we have to use this money to replace the cameras. Also 30 murderers and 50 rapists got away because our system was down."
"Police are asking for the public's help" Wow! Too bad no one saw anything. If you did, you didn't.
Surely, if the system is any good, it will have identified who did it?
No surprise they didn't catch anything. The only possible explanation is ghosts, because the entire town was at my house for poker night that night.
But they're only for license plates!!! /s
License plate deez nuts xd
Don't tempt me
From what I read on the news, they in fact caught some people by looking at other Flock cameras. Be careful anyway, while doing illegal things. And don't brag about it or tell your friends.
the most important thing for the people who did it is to not tell anyone
One would hope they would know better. But, it's possible they post it on YouTube.
Flock removal 100% speedrun, handsaw only
100% runs are great, but no need to add challenge restrictions like handsaws only here. I suspect a multiplayer mod was used here anyway, like the one made for Mario 64– those can get pretty wacky.
I have definitely not been looking up the precise locations of every flock camera in my town.
Can’t they just install flock cameras to watch and identify those cutting down flock cameras?
who will watch the watchers of the watchers?
Wow, those cameras are $3000 each??
$20 for the camera, $80 for pole and solar, and $2900 for the shareholders and kickbacks.
The article was referring to the cost to replace them, which would be both the equipent (camera, solar panel, pole, mounting hardware) and labor.
Edit: so yes, all told it appears to cost $3k to have a camera. But the camera piece alone would cost a lot less than that.
Not to mention a fat cut for Flock's profits, of course.
Probably $2800 for the labor to install the pole
Must be paying $100/h to very slow pole installers that spend a day and a half doing each installation.
Or maybe the installers need moral support so there's 8 of them twiddling their thumbs whilst 2 do the actual work AND they're still really slow even with all the moral support so it takes them a day and a half per pole.
Yet another explanation is that most of that money is just sweet, sweet lucre for Flock.
That's pretty cheap for government stuff, no wonder they're going up so quickly everywhere. Small expense for the government, little scrutiny and incentive to poke through Flock's marketing crap.
And a subscription fee, probably.
And you get a free solar collector as well!
Hero
I just wanna say that if you all want a good band to listen to, Winona Fighter kicks ass. They also are in support of stuff like this.
Would covering the license plate on your car, and not taking any phones, etc. be enough? You'd need an older car that doesn't rat you out, too. If there are enough other cameras around, they could possibly track you all the way back to your house, I'm thinking store security cameras and doorbell cameras.
Also, in a small town, there aren't many people out driving around in the middle of the night, and if their car is registered in that town, then simply knowing the make and model could be enough to find them.
I expect they'll be caught. And, if they are, we'll hear about it. They really need to catch someone and make an example out of them, that would be a high priority for them.
I expect they won't be caught, frankly. If for no other reason than statistically, most crimes of this nature do not get solved. About 30% is the statistic for burglaries and property damage. So, even if the person had a MEDIAN capacity, the odds are already stacked in thier favour.
Given that these are flock cameras... pretty fair to say this was done with some degree of due diligence. It was motivated out of principle, not personal gain, not desperation. Based on that alone, I'd spitball down to a 10% chance.
One step further... this fits the profile of a video I saw where a "reporter" was explaining how flock cameras get taken down, and exactly what "people" are doing to avoid being caught. There exist volumes of information on exactly what a successful flock takedown looks like. Given that, I'd further drop it to well below 5%.
The cops won't find them on thier own. Only realistic avenue to zero in on the person is a tip. If the person was smart, they didn't blab.
And even if they did, they didn't keep anything that could meaningfully link them to the act. Even if they end up getting charged, without a smoking gun (flock components in thier garage) actually getting the conviction would be pretty much impossible. Someone ratting them out isn't nearly enough for a conviction on its own.
Because it was motivated on principle, there is a non zero chance the person who did it might just defiantly confess (proclaim, like a manifesto) if they get charged. But still unlikely.
I'd be shocked if anyone even gets charged. I genuinely don't think there is ANY real chance of a conviction.
Like I said, as this continues, the motivation to catch someone will increase.
What a successful take down looks like now, might not work as they increase their efforts.
And even if they did, they didn’t keep anything that could meaningfully link them to the act. Even if they end up getting charged, without a smoking gun (flock components in thier garage) actually getting the conviction would be pretty much impossible. Someone ratting them out isn’t nearly enough for a conviction on its own.
All true in normal circumstances, but police plant evidence, and judges are corrupt. They need an example to post online nationally, so that will happen one way or another.
Bicycles don't have all those whiz-bang fancy communication devices. Nor do the ol' L.P.C.'s (Leather Personnel Carriers)
Neither do legs
Yeah that's part of the LPC's. Leather Personnel Carriers are boots.
Anyone know if a airsoft pistol is strong enough to do some damage? We thankfully don't have them yet, but you gotta stay prepared.
Just a question, does no one else recognize AI writing now? Like, am I really the only person seeing this? Every article reads like the exact same LLM has written it.
It's an SEO spam site claiming to be about product reviews. They don't actually have products on hand. Looks like it's all generated spam.
Nobody knows what SEO spam is anymore either. This era of scrolling and reading headlines and comments has been awful. People are fake content consuming zombies.
My town has flock cameras pointed at flock cameras on each side of the road
Do they have x-ray to see through a balaclava?
You need dozens of people in balaclavas all go cut cameras, meet in a location with additional masked marauders, and then go their separate ways, so that you can't tell who was who in the commission of the actual deflocking.
There was a guy who robbed a bank like that. He put an ad out in the paper for people to show up to a certain place dressed like construction workers, ostensibly for a flash mob. So he goes into the bank in a yellow shirt and hard hat, robs the bank, and what do the cops find dozens of milling around?
Depends.
Where did you walk to get there? Were you in a car at any point in your current outfit beforehand and drove past any cameras? Did you leave your house and walk there in view of cameras? (including Ring cameras in neighborhoods and parking lot cameras).
If so, you're exposed as long as there is some persistence to the data mining for a perp.