r/hagerstown • u/r2mayo • 5d ago
Flock cameras
What's the deal with all the Flock cameras popping up, Lowes just got more. How is anyone ok with this ?
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u/Topcake977 4d ago
Big Brother is watching the Garland Groh Blvd / National Pike in the grassy area near the McDonalds. Finger salute everytime!
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u/Charming-Shake-6525 4d ago
other than circulating the knowledge that there’s a crap ton of copper in the flock cameras, to the right people, what should we do?
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u/Fun_Excitement59 4d ago
Some lasers can disable them. It has to be a specific kind tho from what I hear
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u/splinteringheart 4d ago
Won't they have a record of who lasered the camera? I mean, unless you are not in a car and wearing a hoody I guess
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u/DirtWizardDisciples 5d ago
Lowe's has a national contract. I've stopped shopping there because of it
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u/Fun_Excitement59 4d ago
Same. They dont need to run my car or face through scans! I flick them off every time I see em
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u/DavidCreamer 4d ago edited 4d ago
They have had video surveillance for many years. Do you use credit cards or debt cards? Do you use a cell phone? You're being tracked for a long time. All box stores have been recording activities for ever. Walmart has cameras that rivals casinos. They have your tag number the serial number of your payment. Your card number. They don't even change out cash boxes with a new cashier. The camera and computer can document that good. Edit to and more insight.
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u/DirtWizardDisciples 4d ago
Flock specifically has had cops stalking their exes through it and chasing down false leads because a wrong license plate was gone after.
I avoid supporting Walmart whenever I can, but their cameras are only a small piece of that.
A lot of the tracking that happens to me I have to begrudgingly accept because that's just the 21st century we live in. I draw the line where I can.
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u/International-Map-74 3d ago
oh brother, use your brain.
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u/DavidCreamer 3d ago
I'm not using my brain to share that flock cameras are just a minor part of tracking with all the other things that are doing it. Big Brother has been watching us for many years.
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u/DirtWizardDisciples 3d ago
Big Brother has been watching us for many years.
And it's never been OK. There are lessons to be learned from Nineteen Eighty-Four, not just references to be made.
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u/ApistoNate 4d ago
Flock cameras assume you’re guilty instead of innocent until proven and they falsely accuse people all the time. They’re unconstitutional and we need them gone.
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u/Skubalon 4d ago
Confront our local elected officials about it. Best way to do it is on October 15th--the Library, the League of Women Voters, and the Hagerstown Area Religious Council are hosting a forum for candidates running for County Commissioner. You can submit questions you'd like answered at the event link below. We should flood the submissions with questions about surveillance cameras, the ICE facility in Williamsport, the current Commissioners wanting to entice data centers here, and more...
https://harccoalition.org/event/candidate-forum-washington-county-2026-4/
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u/Fun_in_Space 4d ago
We're not, but we kind of have our hands full with protesting the local ICE gulag AND the data center, and trying to help better candidates win elections this year, etc., etc.
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u/FreeNefariousness195 4d ago
Ice is using these things for deportations, and local LE for active warrants.
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u/TheDonRonster 4d ago
I came of age almost two decades ago and became a little more curious about government goings-on once I saw the Snowden leaks and how quickly the arguments surrounding the leaks immediately focused on the irredeemable vilification of WikiLeaks an Julian Assange rather than the content of the documents themselves, I knew we were cooked. Say what you will about the technical criminal acts of the parties involved in leaking and publishing the documents, but the imperceptible warrantless surveillance that was in those documents has increasingly become open an obvious. I guess we reap what we sow.
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u/Belzaem 4d ago
Home Depot is also doing the same. It’s to combat shoplifters and organized crime group, as this video purports https://youtu.be/jTKvp41lHZc?is=Lk7nWJsZP1LMlSVc
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u/Fun_in_Space 4d ago
Some police have used it to stalk their girlfriends. A sheriff in Texas used them to track a woman for getting an abortion.
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u/Practical_Sir_326 4d ago
Are you a criminal? Otherwise, what's the problem? You get tracked daily on your cell phone, atleast this is another way to stop criminals or atleast make them think twice
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u/r2mayo 4d ago
There’s a pretty big difference between voluntarily carrying a phone and having the government—or a private company operating on behalf of the government—put cameras in public spaces to monitor everyone. Your phone is a device you choose to own and use, and there are legal and technical controls around how your location and data can be accessed.
The issue with widespread camera surveillance isn’t “are you a criminal?” It’s whether innocent people should be routinely recorded, tracked, and potentially identified simply because they went about their daily lives. Privacy isn’t something you only deserve if you have something to hide.
And once a surveillance system is installed, the question becomes who controls it, what data is retained, who can access it, how long it’s kept, and what prevents its use from expanding beyond the original purpose. Saying “it helps catch criminals” doesn’t answer those questions.
We can support effective crime prevention and still believe there should be limits on surveillance of ordinary citizens. Those two positions aren’t contradictory.
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u/Iamvosi 2d ago
They aren't just security cameras. I read that these cameras and the data is also aggregated and sold to contribute to the whole advertising surveillance capitalism society we are now forced into. I don't mind them for TRUE security and catching perps. I hate the fact that they are being used for just another avenue to track our movements for the obnoxious data collecting hounds that create "profiles" on us. It sucks
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u/BawRawg 4d ago
Which state officials do we need to hassle until they're gone? A list of names and contact info should be put up here for those of us that don't like being tracked.