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Comment by floren | Hacker News Reader

You'd think the residents of Atherton of all places would know better than to think "I have nothing to hide..."

Atherton is not the focus of the story, so much as it is a town small enough that it can't handle oversight of the actual story, which is Flock cameras. Outsourcing public safety cameras to a non-governmental corporation creates a privacy nightmare over which small towns can't exercise proper oversight. Another example: https://cardinalnews.org/2025/03/28/i-drove-300-miles-in-rur... (although I think the Commonwealth of Virginia has now started to regulate Flock camerasj.

SF uses flock cameras as well[0][1].

I am curious if merely by having a published policy, larger cities have less scrutiny in the actual use by federal law enforcement - though likely just as frequently accessed as any Atherton camera.

[0]: https://www.sf.gov/news--san-franciscos-new-public-safety-ca...

[1]: https://www.sanfranciscopolice.org/sites/default/files/2021-...

Atherton is actually notorious though for this kind of thing.

Before ALPR was ubiquitous, in the 2000s, the Atherton Police Blotter in the local paper was a hoot. Half of the entries were residents calling about suspicious people that were hired landscapers or kids walking home from school.

Not at all surprised that they went overboard on Flock and opened the footage up for every agency under the sun.

Law enforcement’s sole societal function is to protect capital and the capitalist class.

Law enforcement’s sole societal function is to serve the interests of the ruling class.

In a capitalist (and, with some qualifications, in a predominantly capitalist mixed economy) society, that is protecting capital and the capitalist class, but that’s a product of context.

It's an ok simplification. The ruling class always controls the capital, so there isn't much difference to any other society.

(And when the ruling class doesn't control the capital, you don't get a clear class division.)

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