Public posturing. A similar covert operation is performed by police in my area to catch crosswalk violators. It gets media attention; this increases public awareness of driver safety.
Double the penalty, then drivers might take the law seriously.
If I had to sit on a jury for a traffic citation trial, I wouldn’t have a pleasant attitude towards the accused.
I would have to believe 99.9% are handled as a bench trial (no jury).
@ChrisTheTireWhisperer are you exempt from jury duty?
You are right, The reference, verses a quote, was clear, I missed it..
Then I would advise you not to be involved in any “high-profile cases…”
If someone gets called for jury duty, they don’t know if it’s high-profile or something low-key, afaik
Cases that involve the police as one of the parties, since juries tend to rule in favor of them, regardless of evidence or facts.
Unless it is federal court, then you know it’s a big deal. For the local court we just had to report in the morning, then were told if we were needed or not and the deputy ushered us in. Pretty informal. The dumb lawyer never even questioned us.
do you know the claimant? Yes, he was a kid from the neighborhood. Do you know the lawyer? Yes he is the son of the judge I appeared before in 1964. Well can you be objective? Sure. Stupid lawyer and we ruled against the kid.
Three cases and can’t remember the third for the life of me.
Last time I was visiting relatives in Syracuse NY, I noticed the HUNDREDS if not THOUSANDS of cameras they have setup. They’re on light poles. At one red light I looked ahead and literally almost every light pole had one as far as I could see.
Not just cameras. Some cities are using drones. But they don’t observer in real-time. If a crime is reported in an area, they can review footage to help solve the crime.
Not in my experience. The last case I was on most of my fellow jurors said something like ‘I always assume the cop is lying’ when we started our deliberations.
What I meant in my remark, “I would advise you not to be involved in any “high-profile cases…” as the defendant, If you are going to commit a crime, commit a little crime, a misdemeanor, like “jay walking or Littering…” not something like a “million dollar Ponzi scheme…” where it would make the national news…
Thanks
That lightened up my afternoon 
This website–which purports to show whether your vehicle has been “flocked”–appears to be legitimate. However, your license plate might turn-up no results because of multiple reasons:
The website only displays searches from audit logs they’ve obtained through public records requests, and while their most recent data is from 7/31/2026, there may be significant historical gaps. Plus, most agencies don’t publish audit logs.
I’m no lawyer but they are fundamentally different. A phone call is a personal communication between one or more parties not intended to be made public. Driving on public streets is, well, public. Theoretically, it would be no different than a person sitting where the camera is and recording license plates as people drove by. The issue I have is with the ease of collecting all of them. When technology improves to the point that the original intent of laws are now circumvented, then the laws themselves probably need to change.
If they can identify the car mivements, it is not beyond the possibility to identify the person.
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated and no warrant shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
They had houses in 1791 but not cars yet. No difference. Fair game if they have a guy they are looking for and the system alerts on a car, but how is that different than sending an army of officers out to check houses?
Secondly, th3 police report that they later discover someone they were looking for or was tied to a location under investigation. So they gather information on everyone in a fishing expedition to find someone. Road block?
Some things are clearly legal, somethings are clearly illegal, and some are boarderline that represent the slippery slope into a police state that should not be allowed.
There is a very distinct difference. You’re not driving your house on a public street. Your house is situated on land you own and anyone would have to cross your land to look inside your house.
A car is driving down a public street with transparent windows. The interpretation of laws regarding privacy has been quite clear regarding this difference.
In 1791, you would travel to town in a horse and carriage. Wide open view of the carriage and occupants. You think people didn’t take notice? Less people to watch so the fact you came to town was probably even more scrutinized than today.
Those pesky FACTS keep getting in the way.
Most houses are on public streets. So they can’t stop you without probable cause, and they can’t search your car without a warrant but they can track everywhere you go?
Yes. In fact, they have multiple methods to do that, not the least of which is your cell phone pinging towers constantly while you are out and about. It’s the information age dontchaknow.
Most houses are on private lots that face public streets. They are not sitting on public property.
I’m no fan of the flock cameras or private companies being able to do this kind of business. Especially if they are mounting those cameras to anything other than privately owned poles. They should be paying a hefty fee for the privilege of installing them in a community since they are making money off of them and the data they collect.
This issue came up at a recent City Council meeting, and the mayor, who is a friend of mine, said the following: “They are an excellent tool for helping to fight harm, but I understand now that people have privacy concerns, so we need to investigate”. He also said that he was alarmed that the City Manager had signed a contract with Flock that pays the company over $400k per year.
Flock’s representative stated that local agencies control their data and determine who is authorized to access it. According to Flock, data is automatically deleted after a predetermined period — typically 30 days in most communities unless local law requires otherwise — and searches require a reason, and are logged for auditing.
If I know my mayor as well as I think I do, I believe that he is likely to refuse to renew the Flock contract.
