TL;DR: The Columbine Valley police in Colorado, US, used Flock cameras to wrongfully accuse a woman (Chrisanna Elser) of stealing a $25 package from a doorstep in the neighboring town of Bow Mar. She had to prove her own innocence by collecting evidence, from apps on her phone to dashcam footage in her vehicle, to prove her whereabouts.
I found out about this story through Louis Rossmann:
This woman was essentially considered guilty until proven innocent. The police officer refused to show her the alleged evidence that identifies her as the thief, and told her that this case was a lock. He said to her:
“You know we have cameras in that town. You can’t get a breath of fresh air in or out of that place without us knowing,”
What is insane to me is not just that Chrisanna Elser was wrongfully accused, but that she had to use surveillance to prove her innocence. I hate that this is part of the surveillance economy. Instead of passing policies to actually create a safer world, we are sold all these surveillance tools to protect ourselves. Surveillance Capitalism wins either way.
Chrisanna Elser works in finance. If she had been arrested and later proved her innocence, it could have ruined her career because it would be a blemish on her reputation. What we are essentially learning is that if you don’t surveil yourself, you may find yourself in trouble because you won’t be able to prove your innocence. I’m appalled!
Oh, and by the way, the police never apologized. They just congratulated her for doing the detective work. We have to fight this!
If you want to learn more about automated license plate readers (ALPRs), I recommend the links below:
When a terrorist said “people who cross my way are terrorists” … perspective matters. I mean, who want to be stalked 24/7 by strangers? Who want to see unknown adults stalking our kids 24/7? A person who spreads fear to force the politics to install cameras everywhere to stalk everyone, perpetrator-victim-reversal (calling victims they’re terrorists) … isn’t it very close to actual terrorism?
Here’s another example of ALPR Flock cameras being allegedly used to illegally enter people’s homes and wrongfully arrest them.
TL;DR: Cherokee County deputies barged into a woman’s home without a warrant and arrested her because they believe that her adult son, who doesn’t live with her, is the motorcycle driver suspect they are looking for because of a traffic violation. They have no idea who the motorcycle driver is, and are basing their information on Flock cameras.
Found out about it through this random short from a lawyer’s channel, which provide additional context:
