This searchable tool helps track security cameras in your city

Recent coverage of Flock Safety, the fast-growing US surveillance technology company, reveals how opposition to automated license plate readers is manifesting itself at the local level.

In South Carolinaofficials have been wrangling over whether to install 25 new cameras, a disagreement that reflects broader questions about cost, oversight and how much surveillance communities are willing to accept. the The City of Los Angeles recently broke its contract with Flock Safetydespite the CEO of Fluke He believes that the suspension should be temporary While the police department is reviewing its rules.

These cancellations are due in large part to public concern about a system designed to enable mass surveillance, a system vulnerable to serious abuses, including biased policing and privacy violations.

To track such surveillance, journalists and researchers are increasingly turning to a free tool called Surveillance Atlasa collaboration between the renowned digital privacy group Electronic Frontier Foundation and the University of Nevada, Reno. The site has become a go-to resource for mapping police technology — which also includes drones, facial recognition and body cameras — with a searchable database that is often more reliable than alternatives.

Using the Atlas of Surveillance tool, you can enter a city, county, state, law enforcement agency, or vendor in the United States and select the technology you want to track. You’ll get a list of details based on your search, including links to public records or news articles.

“We often encounter situations where council members don’t even know a particular tool is in use,” said Beryl Lipton, senior investigative researcher at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. “Learning about the technology we have captured in the Surveillance Atlas is intended to help people have conversations (about) whether this tool is appropriate for local use, start asking questions, and advocate for standards around how police use or do not use this equipment.”

Surveillance monitoring

While other tools L.RGiven the existence of Fluke cameras and similar monitoring systems, I prefer the EFF approach, which uses reliable data from selected volunteers, including students and staff at the University of Nevada, as well as experienced researchers. These volunteers use a variety of information, including government documents, press releases, news stories and confirmed social media posts, to create lists that include exactly what surveillance technologies local police or local police departments are using, as well as when they were adopted.

UnlockFlock, another popular app that uses crowdsourcing to report camera locations, has an open source design that makes it vulnerable to false reports from people who only know He thinks They see a surveillance device. Self-reports have also become less reliable due to hidden surveillance cameras In speed signs And aloe vera.

I’ve tried the Atlas tool with several location searches, including Albany, Georgia, where… Five police officers were dismissed and arrested in July on charges of misusing the city’s Fluke system. Sure enough, I can see exactly when the Albany company started its Flock program, among other details about the technology it uses.

“Even though we may know that a police department has a tool, we may not know that they don’t have a governing policy or what their policy includes, like how long data is retained,” Lipton told me.

Lipton recommends users pair the Atlas with EFF Street level monitoring centerwhich provides more in-depth documentation, including details on third-party vendors cooperating with law enforcement.

The Atlas database is not perfect, and volunteers can only do so much. In my searches, I found that my city provided accurate listings for traffic cameras, but I didn’t mention the period when it adopted Flock automated license plate readers last year, before removing them after a public complaint. I’ve seen similar patterns in other cities with similar histories, which suggests the database may emphasize active programs or exclude parts of older records.

Resources like the Surveillance Atlas provide residents with a clearer view of the technologies their police departments use, information that may be difficult to obtain otherwise. As I covered beforeSome cities will carefully drop the name “Flock” when announcing new monitoring or surveillance programs, even if they use drones or the brand’s ALPR cameras.

If you would like to volunteer for Atlas Observation, you can select cooperation Option to provide a data point for consideration.

Tyler Lacoma

Editor/Home Security & Smart Home

Tyler has worked on, worked with, and tested all types of smart home and security technology for over a dozen years, explaining the latest features, privacy tricks, and top recommendations. With degrees in business administration, literature, and technical writing, Tyler takes every opportunity to play with the latest AI technology, pushing smart devices to their limits, and occasionally throwing cameras off his roof, all to find the best devices you can trust with your life. He’s always checking in with the renters (and pets) in his life to see what smart products can work for everyone, in every living situation. Living in beautiful Bend, Oregon gives Tyler plenty of opportunities to test the latest technology in all types of weather and temperatures. But when he’s not at work, he can be found walking the aisles, trying a new recipe for a loved one, catching up on his favorite read, or playing with good friends.

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