- Surveillance drones and AI-integrated cameras are now tracking movement across public and private spaces, as evidenced by the installation of a Flock audio detection pole in a Virginia resident’s front yard.
The law’s gaze has grown harder to escape, as surveillance drones and AI-integrated cameras now track movement across public and private spaces alike. And as one Virginia resident recently discovered, Johnny Law is a good listener, too.
According to reporting by Virginia’s WSLS 10, Kat Vaughn of Roanoke was alarmed to discover a Flock audio detection pole had been erected in her front yard. Vaughn told the station that she returned home from a brief trip to a nearby park to discover the freshly-installed device sitting in the parkway strip, the section of public land between her lawn and the street.
The ominous pylon was later identified as a Flock Raven audio detection unit, after a police officer was dispatched to investigate. These devices are basically the police tech firm Flock Safety’s version of the infamous ShotSpotter sensors, a category of audio-surveillance devices which legal analysts say come with significant civil liberty and privacy concerns…