AI license plate cameras tore this town apart and led to a state of emergency | Hacker News Reader

AI license plate cameras tore this town apart and led to a state of emergency

washingtonpost.com

54 pointsgreenburger20 comments

I'm curious why there isn't a counter protest that is more extreme.

Set up your own cameras and publish publicly the movements of politicians that claim this is for safety. Nothing illegal about pointing a camera at the entrance to city hall and logging entries and exits of politicians to a website. Hell, afaict, nothing illegal about pointing a camera at their house and doing the same.

Something in the spirit of celebrity jet trackers, but at a local level.

The hardware/software isn't particularly difficult. Some loudmouth like Rossman could get this moving.

Nothing to hide, nothing to fear right?

You will be arrested for harassing, stalking, and public misconduct (misfeasance primarily), and if that’s not the case, the same legislators will make a new law just for that! It’s a one way justice system, laws apply to the majority but the select few get a pass with all loopholes implemented by the same few.

Possibly charged, but extremely unlikely to have a conviction stick if done intelligently. It would be a pretty massive Streisand effect, and almost certainly covered under first amendment protections.

Anyone can publish a livestream of anything visible from public by the naked eye. Why would using machine vision on that livestream to highlight public officials change anything.

It’s literally the same laws that let flock operate, and exactly what they and other ALPR companies are already doing silently.

They’ll use whatever laws they can and you’ll get imprisoned. They don’t play by the rules. They’ll just ignore that you were doing that for a political purpose and call you a pervert or terrorist or something. You can’t think your way out of authoritarianism with intelligence.

This comment adds nothing new to the conversation. It is simply a rephrasing of the exact same thing said by GP. Read my prior response.

OK so explain how it’ll be okay with you being arrested, spending tens of thousands on lawyers, and probably losing your job and having strangers think you’re a criminal.

It won’t just be fine, thousands are arrested for bullshit every day and their lives are ruined, you’re extremely naive if you think otherwise.

Your comments are literally just wishful thinking, get a fucking clue. Smart people are being violently detained and assaulted by the law every single day.

I haven’t made any of the claims that you are asking me to defend or explain. So I can’t address that strawman.

Sometimes protest must cost the protester something to prove a point, if not - as you point out - many people will be violently detained and assaulted by the law without restraint.

Civil rights protesters for generations have known that getting beaten and unjustly charged are probable short term outcomes while long term justice is on the way. They weigh that they are willing to endure that for the greater good. Yielding to powerful people and injustice because it is unjust is a choice that you can make, but don’t call other people wishful thinkers that need to get a “fucking clue” for being willing to do the thing that you are fearful of.

Of course I’m fearful, I have a family and a disabled kid. Idiots voted for trump now I have to make sure my family is safe. Of course I’m not gonna to stuff to get myself arrested, what do you think this is, a game?

> Possibly charged, but extremely unlikely to have a conviction stick if done intelligently. It would be a pretty massive Streisand effect, and almost certainly covered under first amendment protections.

What part of "The Orange Clown and his minions simply regard the justice system as a speed bump" are you not paying attention to?

> ICE has likely violated more court orders in January 2026 than some federal agencies have violated in their entire existence.

Ref: https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mnd.230...

In the meantime, you will sit in jail, pay money to lawyers, and possible wind up in El Salvador if you really pissed somebody high enough off.

But, sure, feel free to organize it yourself, please. We would all benefit from your actions.

"I'm curious why there isn't a counter protest that is more extreme."

I think it has to do with the increasingly toothless nature of the average civilian - I personally could never seriously physically riot unless in extreme danger

> Last month, Mayor Carmella Mantello, flanked by officers in blue, accused the city council of “defunding” the police and declared a state of emergency to keep the cameras running, a designation usually reserved for floods and blizzards. “I will not put our city in jeopardy and take these cameras away,” she said. The lengths that this Mayor goes to to keep the cameras on raises suspicion.

The lengths that this Mayor goes to to keep the cameras on raises suspicion.

I find it suspicious that this story doesn't show up in HN's search function. But that's just me.

Oh, wait: https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/flock-safety

Maybe loosen the tinfoil hat a bit? This story is the first result for me, and all I did was search for the headline:

https://hn.algolia.com/?q=ai+license+plate+cameras

Your search came three hours after my comment.

I had to navigate around Troy when visiting Vermont because of these cameras. It wasn't trivial due to the river crossing.

There's a very small number of people committing crimes worthy of these cameras, and there's also a small number of people not willing to do business with clients of camera purveyors.

Have any towns tried putting most of the cameras in functional bird feeders, bird boxes and other decorative objects? If so did anyone notice them?

Nothing says "these are for legitimate purposes and your safety" like hidden surveillance networks.

When some cities hid cell towers by making them look like trees it was part of a "beautification process", but you're right. I am just curious if any towns have tried it not counting San Diego putting microphones in the newer LED street lights.

Most of the camera's on my property are hidden but that is to get license plates of porch pirates.

Disguising normal infrastructure seems radically different than hiding private contractor’s public surveillance cameras.

Hiding surveillance cameras on your own property is fine, although I wonder how much you are losing out on deterrence effects.

Besides hidden cameras, you can also put a visible, possibly fake, camera, for deterrence.

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