What the Camera Sees

This is a scanned copy of a printed flock photo. Red dots are places I have deliberately blurred the image for privacy. The camera video that is sent to the AI at the Flock data center in the cloud is very high resolution. Once at the Flock data center the AI does the work of examining each frame of video, reading the text, getting the license plate number, determining the make and model, etc. A single frame then becomes the image. The information is put in the database and sent to the police. The police actually receive two images. The AI at the data center digitally zooms in and crops out everything except the license plate. Click the image to see the full size photo keeping in mind that it is still a very low resolution image compared to that of the actual Flock image.

I drove past the camera at River Road and then went to the police department and asked for copies of the pictures that were captured. I gave the times and dates of my travel in both directions. According to Police Chief Hamblin, only vehicles entering the town are captured and show the rear of the vehicle. He told me that there was no image of me going the other direction, out of town a minute earlier. I have to take his word for this. It is true that all the cameras point into town, but there is no doubt in my mind that video of vehicles going in the other direction are also sent to the data center for analysis. I appreciate Chief Hamblin's cooperation in getting me these images. There seems however to be conflicting evidence that only the rear of vehicles are captured.

Again, because the image was scanned from a printed image it is a low resolution photo. When you take a look at the full size image (by clicking on the image), notice that even without zooming into the license plate it is clearly visible. Notice too that you can almost see the driver of the tanker truck. Now consider that if this was the original high resolution image and if a vehicle was going in the other direction at the location of of the jeep, don't you think that you could see the driver through the windshield? Take a look at this image taken over 10 years ago with an even older Nikon camera. I shot it from a much further distance from the ground than the vehicles are shot by the Flock camera. Imagine how clear the driver of a vehicle shot through the windshield of a vehicle by a Flock camera would be.

Flock is quick to point out that they do not do facial recognition. Maybe they don't maybe they do, or maybe they will in the future. That does not mean that the high quality image taken from the cloud can't be used by some other data broker using the image. The cameras are the first step in this massive surveillance scheme. It is time to tell the Town Council to abolish the cameras. Despite the fact that they have been given most of this information they are reluctant to act.

The Town Council.....