This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
A- USA doesn't have standardised plates? Not even 1 per state, but 8000?!
2- Fuck mass survalance, fuck armed cops, fuck Flock.
Each state has different levels of customization with different background images. I like plate customization, its a form of self expression.
Customized images, yes. Overlapping alphanumeric codes (two vehicles with the same sequence?) NO. Maybe it was necessary in the 1960s, but it is long since past time for issuance of alpha-numeric unique identifiers to become... unique throughout the states.
How many digits to we need for 297,500,000 plates (as of 2026).
Plus we should probably include Canada and Mexico, since they have the same sized plates and cross the borders regularly.
Canada also has custom plates and different designs in each province too.
Also unless I’m mistaken, when Britain was in the EU, it didn’t use standardized plates like the rest of the member states, right?
There are no standard plates in the EU. The only matching thing is the country code on the left side.
6 characters (A-Z 0-9) gives you 2,176,782,336 combinations.
Even if you take out some confusing combos like O0, 1I, 5S, 8B ... 6 characters of 31 different kinds gives you 887,503,681
Plates should be standardized. Bumper stickers and other things can be used for personalization.
You have bigger problems if you're relying on a custom license plate to express a personality...
Risk isn't worth "reward', especially when you hear things like certain backwards states trying to mandate a default " in god we trust" of other biblical theme so that people then need to opt out intentionally, in turn their vehicles becoming potential targets for zealots and cops to harass.
Just mandate national design with black text on white background
Tribal nations also have their own plates in some cases. Mine does.
A, but then 2? You monster! :)
Fascists don't particularly care about false positives. The cameras are operating as intended.
Absolutely this, and why they’re fine with executing innocent people on death row, cops killing people who were running away or complying and not a threat, or some DA imprisoning someone for decades on crappy evidence only to be found innocent after half their life is gone.
👉 The system is working exactly as intended and must be destroyed
Yes, the Flock system is working correctly, as a tool for police to stalk and harass innocent people.
False positives are your problem, not the cops. You should try not being unlucky next time.
Also - I'm so sorry you had to go through that, fuck flock.
Lol no, cops are definitely part of the problem. This reaction over fake plates is not sane
They always claim everything they do is correct and working. To admit otherwise means opening the department up to a lawsuit they may actually lose their jobs over.
It is working perfectly as intended. It is intended to facilitate fascist authority, siphon wealth from municipalities, and help make cops feel tough so they can more efficiently lord over their communities.
They drove up and didn't check/verify the plate before engaging? That seems stupid and lacking responsibility.
What was it, two cop cars? Then I assume four cops? Always makes me wonder if the engagement is in a warranted amount. I assume it's the norm in the US, maybe it's necessary for "stolen car", although I'm skeptical, and it certainly makes it worse for the falsely accused exposed to it. And it makes the lack of verification, making it not just a flock false positive but an engagement false positive, victimizing civilians, worse.
and then bragged 'you're lucky we didn't come out with guns drawn'
fucking yokel shitbags
four cop cars came flying out of nowhere and boxed us in. The officers jumped out and started shouting.
So, 4 cars, who knows how many cops.
Really, this is a story about how absurd cops are in the USA.
At no point in this tale was there ever a car reported stolen. It was only a set of license plates that went missing. So, at no point was there a car thief, you can't have a car thief if there's no stolen car. Obviously, if there's no car thief, there can't be any reason to assume that the person in the "stolen car" will be violent. Yet, somehow the police charged up aggressively, boxing him in using 4 cars, jumping out and shouting, hands on their guns.
The cops even claimed that their reaction was "lucky" for the guy:
“You’re lucky we’re in Plymouth. If you were in Minneapolis, they definitely would’ve come at you with guns drawn.”
And the guy considers himself lucky too:
And the more I’ve sat with the aftermath, the more I’m thinking about how, with a different set of officers in a different city, or a different unsuspecting driver with 34 ## DTM New Jersey plates who was a little less collected, this could’ve ended so, so much worse. Thank God our kids weren’t with us. I’m not sure if I would’ve been able to react as calmly.
If he hadn't been as calm, he might have been killed by the cops because he might not have reacted as calmly.
The fact that this is being framed as a "Flock" issue is absurd. It's like a story about a sensor in front of the orphan crushing machine which sometimes misidentifies normal people as orphans and throws them onto the conveyor belt. Sure, that's an issue, but let's focus on this orphan crushing machine first.
It is not uncommon for cops to obtain warrants for the wrong house and tear that place apart looking for drugs or someone who was never there. The departments have no financial responsibility for the damage and personal injuries they cause. Why would they bother reading the plate?
Well, at least we know this can only happen 98 times, by mistake.
For comparison, if you were hosting some kind of platform or service that only has a 99% uptime, you'd have to pay people to use it.
Lucky he’s white.
Of course. Flock always works correctly, even when it causes innocent people to get harmed.
Its a spying tool first and foremost, the crime solving part is just a half-arsed afterthought justification.
That's around 2/3rds of the entire US population
In a month each person who drives regularly will be read hundreds of times in cities. Rural areas will be fewer times, but it is likely that on average a car is read at least a dozen or more times in a month across the US and wherever else they might be.
fuck flock!
I like license plates as I think some degree of accountability is important when you are controlling a highly deadly machine. If you make moves that endanger people they should have a way to identify you. I've always felt those tinted plate covers were the sign of being a real asshole driver. Now I think if there is anyway to block your plate from flock cameras you should try to do it. Has any coating been effective for this?
Doesn't matter, they don't rely on just the plates. They match on make/model, color, condition (specific dents, scratches, damage, repairs, etc), bumper stickers, face matching on the driver and/or passengers, sound, bluetooth and/or radio IDs, and more.
You can make things that fool it, Benn Jordan demonstrates doing this with something that is hard to even notice as a human. But all that's going to do is draw extra attention to you. In a surveillance state anyone trying to maintain privacy is clearly guilty after all.
