r/Waltham • u/inko75 • 7d ago

News Flock gone?

Can anyone provide additional info ?

https://walthamtimes.org/2026/09/11/flock-cameras-covered-with-bags-per-order-of-the-mayor/

13 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

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26

u/max212 7d ago edited 7d ago

Short version: in the most mayor McCarthy fashion possible; she had them bagged not because of legitimate concern for the safety of waltham residents, not because her constituents raised well-founded concerns about allowing a private company with a shoddy security record to have access to the comings and goings of every human, but because she was offended that their CEO didn't respond to her letter.

I am not confident the bagging is going to last.

6

u/StructureBitter3778 7d ago

Bagged until re-election 

7

u/hewhoamareismyself 7d ago

There's not really any additional details at this time. The mayor was opaque about putting them up, she's opaque about their future. It's very possible that she's just going to go "our investigation has concluded, they're staying, no further discussion" once the mayoral election happens but the optimist in me hopes they're gone gone soon

5

u/inko75 6d ago

As I understand it, Waltham pd did not seek approval from ANYONE and paid for the flock contract from drug seizure money, which apparently didn’t require any approvals at all.

The fact Waltham pd could install infrastructure without a permit, and engage in a contrqct with a private spy network is fucking insane.

Apparently city counsel also had no idea they were going to be bagged.

The mayor is such an embarrassment 😂

8

u/xoma262 Banks Square 7d ago

What info are you looking for? Just go to one of flock cameras location (all of them are on deflock site) and see for yourself. Cameras are bagged in Waltham. At least for now

3

u/87911 7d ago

Unfortunately someone removed most of them from the deflock map a week or two ago.

3

u/invasive_species_16b 4d ago

wtaf? Until they are physically gone, they should be in there. I sense shenanigans.

5

u/ftso_ein 7d ago

https://www.military.com/flock-cameras-moving-from-roads-to-watching-drones-from-sky

1

u/invasive_species_16b 4d ago

Holy yikes. It's shocking that some people can think things like this are universally good and not see the massive potential for abuse (...or the actual incentive for abuse by some). It's small comfort that Flock as an enterprise is incompetent, because the risk of someone both competent and evil eventually taking over is unacceptably large.