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Will Quincy see Flock cameras out of Quincy?
In recent days, media coverage on local communities opting to end their contracts with Flock Safety, the maker of Flock cameras as well as the data manager for the images of vehicular traffic taken by the cameras has been considerable.
Media reporting on the terminating of agreements with Flock has been all but daily for at least weeks and thus far more often than the usual three stories about something novel before returning to the typical daily assortment of car accidents and house fires featured on broadcast, cable, and other news outlets.
I see you!
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The gist of the deluge of Flock coverage?
How locals are not wild about being flocked while merely but driving out and about.
Granted, Flock cameras have helped successfully purse some criminal cases locally as well as so far there are no known incidences of any local improper use Flock metadata.
Even so, Flock cameras quietly came to Quincy in 2020 and then steadily increased in number to roughly fifty or mores cameras locally and apparently the most of any community in the Commonwealth with not much in the way of community input, much less due consideration of locals’ sentiments.
Then again, neither has there conversely been much in the way of local consideration of “cop cam” even though this technology is for the most part viewed as beneficial to law enforcement.
I read Quincy has the most Flock cameras in Massachusetts. I don’t know if that is true. It’s hard to believe there haven’t been any documented Quincy cases of officers using it for non work-related searches. Are these searches audited? I bet if someone did some FOIA’e they would find some inappropriate ones. Good thing everything is on the level in Quincy and there is never anything underhanded going on.
Shush — do you want to tip off city workers who take their city rides home after work?
I would have to bet that the Mayor’s enemy list is watched on a regular basis. Hell, if they have (side door) access, without Police supervision, all Quincy citizens should be scared. Who accesses this for the Mayor? Where is Walker? I met a tow operator who made a fortune through purchase of the Flock database. Who made the original deal with the Flock and get a copy of the contract and the data access history since. They Mayor will fold on this an a millisecond. Somebody should file the FOIA and wait a year (or so) for the records.
Will the Police Chief and Mayor Koch promise the public an independent Audit of inquiries made by officers to determine if there were unauthorized inquiries made on Quincy’s system? All these other departments seem to be conducting audits and finding violations. Quincy has not said a word which makes me think they already know!
Audits in Quincy — yah, right …
Probably should have had some type of camera in the Council on Aging director’s office going back to 2014.
Who could possibly trust this Administration with such a tool. I trust the Police Officers and it ends there. I recall a time when more than a few Public Servants may have gone to jail, with this technology. I am OK if citizens have the same access an the City. Imagine Timmins with this tool for a fool? How will Tommy turn good cops into informants, is the question. They have all kissed the ring.
Seems to me if the Quincy City Council really wants to shut off the spigot of this administration’s reckless and illegal spending, audits should commence forthwith.
Also, I’d like to see All persons who speak before the council raise their right hand and swear not to lie.
A,
The council has no funds budgeted funds to it to undertake audits or retain professional experts. To score such funding the mayor has to go along with funding requests and like that is going to happen.
And speaking of requiring oaths to speak the truth, seeing the likes of mayor’s mouth piece Walkbacker do so would either pose a perjury trap or give rise to a divine lightning strike with either or both OK by me.
Imagine the City Police Union and other City unions if local Citizens could track their take home cars and work vehicles and GPS equip city paid cell phones on FLOCK? The unions would absolutely lose their minds. They’d suddenly have a hard time explaining the “nap breaks,” late arrivals, and early departures.
Even if officials promised it was “just for safety,” the exact same cops who routinely track citizens would suffer a massive irony deficiency and cry foul. The police chief talks a big game about integrity, but let’s be real—local cops are already abusing police computers to run background checks on their prospective tenants.
And heaven forbid we audit the travels of six-figures-paid higher-up city employees. If we actually tracked their work hours, we’d finally see exactly how many “working” hours are spent sitting in a dentist’s chair while they simultaneously cash out hundreds of thousands in unused sick leave. If the chief, departments heads and the along with rank and file officers want to lead the way by agreeing to be able to be tracked by citizens, I would be more open to the cameras. The chief should lead the way and show us how being tracked is okay!
Flocked,
In fairness, doxxing the locations of police officers is a bad idea. OTOH, I wanna see cop cam bundled into the mix. After all, cop cam video is known to protect officers from bogus police brutality claims as well as can video document police actions.
A. Hough, Such would leave Walker speechless. My last comment is, even if we can trust the Police, we cannot trust Flock as it sells the data.
Quinn, no way can anything shut up a pathological liar like Walkbacker.
Tonight on Polymarket: Polymarket Sept. 9, 2026
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JUST IN: Florida woman spends 13 days in jail after Flock camera data wrongly tied her to a deadly crash.
Chief Kennedy gave a very “Lawyerly” response that Quincy wasn’t sharing “Access” with other communities anymore. He didn’t say “sharing data”. He knows if Boston calls someone will share the info with them and the same if Quincy calls Boston or any other department.
Ask him how tickets are fixed among police departments. They just make a call and the ticket magically disappears. It’s illegal, but let the Chief tell you it doesn’t happen on his watch. Get it on tape.
Quincy has long been a city of shady operations. They want to know what you are doing but don’t anyone to ask city officials for public disclosure on things they are doing or they will flood you with legal reasons why you are not entitled to it.
They want their doings kept under wraps but they can intrude in your life without a warrant and without even probable cause.
They gather this info, review this info and never tell you that they used it or disseminated it. It’s a total intrusion. They can share your comings and goings with other officers in other departments and there is no record of it. They can target politicians, constituents or people who don’t vote their way.
Don’t think it would be the first time? Think again. Post on a blog like this and let them find out and they will be using those cameras to see your comings and goings. CANCEL THESE CONTRACTS.
I think Chief Kennedy handled the questions well. I’m good with Lawmen. It’s the Administration and Flock access that is the problem. Had a friend who bought the tech (as a tow company) and made a fortune. Quite a tool, that can be in the hands of fools.
A citizen could have a lawsuit/divorce proceeding/ dispute and with a valid subpoena, their lawyer could subpoena the information from the Flock Cameras.
Your own tax money could be paying to track you around the City you pay taxes in so that someone can civilly sue you and your tax dollars provide the evidence against you. If you believe your local department is just gathering all this information and never accessing it then you are mistaken!
If you have ever been on the highway and see other cameras, They don’t belong to Mass State Police. They are Mass DOT cameras that are there to observe traffic issues (that is what we are told anyway). They share that info with police all the time when asked.
No subpoena needed. No records. Just government letting you pay to secretly track you. When you go through a toll both and use your EZ pass, your plates are recorded on camera and the data is kept for three years. Don’t believe police officials who tell you nobody has access or we rarely use it and we are very careful with the information.
Reality, they wouldn’t keep it all secret if it was on the up and up. I agree with an earlier post. If the Chief doesn’t mind us tracking his car and phone and we can all view his speed in his taxpayer-paid ride, who he is calling or texting on his cell phone, what time he leaves and goes to work. If he stops at the dentist for a cleaning during work hours or leaves early on a Friday afternoon, the public promises we won’t abuse the data.
The Ledger posted this link where you can plug in your police department and see if your plate was searched or how many searches were conducted. Some vehicles have been searched 30 times. Some people who did the searches don’t even have their names noted as the searchers wanted their identity kept private as they search!
Can’t make this stuff up. “My privacy is important but to hell with yours!”
There are also far more searches than what we were led to believe. Here is the link: https://data.usatoday.com/projects/flock-search/state/MA
Did I read that Quincy has more Flock cameras than any city or town in Massachusetts?
Yes and sorta/kinda no.
Boston discontinued its trial contract for 45 FLOCK cameras but now has 45 cameras from Motorola Solutions and 30 c/o Axon via pilot plans for a city seven times larger than Quincy. OTOH, Boston police wear cop cams whereas Quincy police don’t.
Score things as you may.