Los Angeles Police Ditch 80,000 Surveillance Cameras - Meanwhile Nobody Here Is Asking

When even the police start to fear their own cameras, it is worth paying attention. The Los Angeles Police Department - the third largest in the US - let its three-year contract with the company Flock Safety expire, openly citing serious concerns over civil liberties and privacy.

„This contract is not being renewed because of serious concerns over civil liberties and rights, particularly around privacy and the data collected by these cameras," said Deon Joseph, a senior information officer in the department. Before they consider renewing, he says, they first have to settle the questions of data, privacy, security and sharing.

What does Flock do? The company runs a network of around 80,000 cameras across the US that read vehicle license plates and enable automatic tracking of every car that passes them. In practice, a system that knows where you have been, when and how often - without anyone asking you for permission.

Los Angeles is not alone. Other cities, such as Mountain View in California and South Portland in Maine, cut ties with the company for the same reasons. The list of problems around Flock is long: documented cases of wrongful arrests over false matches, security breaches that exposed live camera feeds, and even federal agents accessing police systems without authorisation to track immigrants.

The story is worth watching from a Balkan seat too. While over there, in a country we treat as a bedrock of privacy and rights, the police are pulling back from mass surveillance, here cameras and tracking systems are quietly being fitted everywhere - and rarely does anyone ask who watches the footage, where it is kept and for how long. If the biggest police force in America has decided that 80,000 cameras is too much, what does that say about our comfortable silence?