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toephu2 | 18 days ago

[flagged]

discuss

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whatthe12899|18 days ago

> the reduction in crime is not solely due to Flock, but is has definitely helped.

what's the theory? murderers see flock cams and decide not to murder? most of the general public doesn't even know what these cameras are (or that they even exist).

toephu2|18 days ago

Lets take the current example of the famous kidnapping of the TV anchor's mother in AZ for example.

If Arizona was blanketed in CCTVs, do you think this kidnapping would have happened?

And if it still did happen, I'm 100% sure the suspects would have been caught by now (11th+ day since the disappearance now).

toephu2|18 days ago

People tend to behave if they know they are being watched. Yeah it's not going to stop crime 100%, but I bet you it will (and it has) help reduce crime by double digit percentages.

Look at places where there are CCTV cameras all over, there is very little crime there compared to the United States. I won't use China as an example because then you are going to attack me for saying it's an authoritarian state. In that case I will use democratic examples: Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore.

dyauspitr|18 days ago

That has always been the question. Are you willing to be constantly surveilled for marginally more security?

thewebguyd|18 days ago

Me, absolutely not. Unfortunately, my opinion seems to be increasingly in the minority and more and more people will happily be surveilled for even just an illusory promise of safety.

The harsh truth is that safety/security can never be guaranteed. No amount of surveillance will 100% prevent any individual from being a victim of a crime. Surveillance might help catching the criminal to face justice afterwards, but it will never 100% prevent.

Because of that, and because of the potential for abuse, it is better to not be under constant surveillance than it is to give up your rights and privacy for no guarantees.

antonvs|18 days ago

Also, banning guns would do even more good. Strange that the people in favor of Flock cameras to reduce crime tend not to be in favor of banning guns to reduce crime.

toephu2|18 days ago

If it leads to a high-trust society, yes. (e.g., see Singapore)

wat10000|18 days ago

Of course they do some good. You could improve things even further by implementing a system like Judge Dredd, and we'd save a ton of money as well.

This is the problem with limits on law enforcement. There are tradeoffs, and people really don't like tradeoffs. Many people prefer to just assume that law enforcement will use their powers for good, rather than have to think about whether any given change will do more harm than good due to enabling bad law enforcement.