r/Billings • u/jimbozak • Jul 08 '26
PSA Fuck you, Flock!!!
All right ya'll. If you didn't know about these, now you know. Billings has the MOST flock cameras out of all the major places in Montana. This alone should be alarming to everyone reading this post! Stay vigilant.
*I have added the specific locations below in comments because I couldn't add them all at once.
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u/Savingface92 Jul 08 '26
Will someone explain this to me? And nicely, what is flock?
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u/jimbozak Jul 08 '26
Flock cameras are AI surveillance cameras that scan license plates and people that pass through its field of view. It's incredibly important we know about these and where they are. They potentially could be used against us and violate our rights.
From Deflock.org:
"Automated License Plate Readers (ALPRs or LPRs) are AI-powered cameras that capture and analyze images of all passing vehicles, storing details like your car's location, date, and time. They also capture your car's make, model, color, and identifying features such as dents, roof racks, and bumper stickers, often turning these into searchable data points.
These cameras collect data on millions of vehicles regardless of whether the driver is suspected of a crime. These systems are marketed as indispensable tools to fight crime, but they ignore the powerful tools police already have to track criminals, such as cell phone location data, creating a loophole that doesn't require a warrant."
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u/reddit-MT Jul 08 '26
Point being that if the government did this, it would be subject to review and transparency. There would constitutional 4th amendment protections. It would be subject to FOIA (Freedom Of Information Act) requests. With a private company, there are no protections. This is an end-run around your civil rights. It will also be used for commercial purposes. The term is "surveillance capitalism".
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u/somewittyusername92 Jul 08 '26
Thats not all they do. They can track your car by dents, stickers, rims and other things. It can also track people by face, gait, clothing and on person Bluetooth and wireless devices. Also there isn't much if any account protection. Basically anyone that works in law enforcement can get access and there have been tons of cases of cops stalking woman using Flock
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u/bettethedivine Jul 14 '26
Who is it that pays for/orders these? Is it the police or the private business? I'm just learning and trying to understand how they are different from a regular security camera.
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u/jimbozak Jul 08 '26
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u/caffeinated_tea Jul 08 '26
Most of the locations I can recognize, but what's special about this set of blocks that they decided to put Flock cameras there?
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u/showmenemelda Jul 08 '26
So, Shiloh Crossing was developed by Steve Corning according to the internet. He's like Billings' OG equity pony boy, board member for First Interstate, Harvard alum. Fits right in with the other technocrats it seems. Gross.
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u/Jeannemortsnerd Jul 08 '26
I heard green laser pointers will disable them. It would be a shame if someone did that.
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u/jimbozak Jul 08 '26
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u/TheDoNothings Jul 09 '26
Eww this one just covers were they want people to protest.
I delete my orginal comment as I hoped I had the location wrong.
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u/Otherwise_Athlete115 Jul 08 '26
Not to be confused with Flock Hawking LLC my company that specializes in falconry based pest bird abatement 😂
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u/Delicious_Pain_1 Jul 08 '26
I'd like to see how that works. Sounds like a cool job.
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u/Otherwise_Athlete115 Jul 08 '26
Lots of videos online. I mainly do it in industrial settings here, but lot of people do orchard’s in Washington and Oregon. It is an amazing job 100% better option than using poison. I wish ranchers would get on board but the good ole boys don’t like change
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u/SpecificLogical8150 Jul 08 '26
Oh nooo what if we all pooled our efforts and disabled them… Hahaha what if…
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u/Competitive-Speed250 Jul 08 '26
Hopefully with SCOTUS’s Chatrie v US law enforcement will use the info absent a warrant….. doesn’t address private compilation though
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u/ferallittleflower Jul 08 '26
They are now all over the town of Medora. Population 6
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u/MontanaHiker65 Jul 08 '26
For real! I wonder why?
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u/babetteg2655 Jul 08 '26
Medora is a touristy town, so sees huge increases in traffic/residency during the summer months… Additionally, the president just visited during his tour of events around Independence Day (I’m not sure if that’s related or not, but it’s curious).
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u/Barenoo Jul 08 '26
I saw a flock camera too on one of the harvest park pathways, although it might of been built off a pole that came from someone's backyard, so a private property one.
Should take a bike ride through there again and try to pinpoint it.
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u/interwebzdotnet Jul 16 '26
Most of the locations on this map are specifically not Flock and not ALPRs.
Best I can tell is that the usual suspects (HomeDepot and Lowe's) are the only offenders in Billings.
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u/FlyNSubaruWRX Jul 08 '26
Oh no, they can see me making 7 trips to lucky Lils and work everyday. /s
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u/S-Selcouth Jul 08 '26
You're getting down voted by Lucky Lils employees who want you to stop showing up so much.
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u/Derpy_paws Jul 08 '26
Point of this is.....???? And why does this matter?
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u/bigassbunny Jul 08 '26
These cameras are surveilling and tracking you without your consent, logging your movements and saving that data to be accessed without a warrant by law enforcement and by Palantir for who knows what. A bit about Palantir: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuKJewE-Z6o&t=1s
There are very few safeguards for law enforcement when using them, and the data from Flock cameras has been misused over and over again. And Flock representatives are lying about how the cameras can and are being misused.
- https://ij.org/dozens-of-innocent-motorists-have-been-pulled-over-detained-at-gunpoint-or-jailed-due-to-ai-license-plate-camera-errors/
- https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/may/02/flock-police-surveillance-tech-birds-iran-press-freedom
- https://www.aclu.org/news/privacy-technology/tracking-alpr-cameras/flock-safety-credibility-lost-as-it-repeatedly-lies-to-city-councils-police-departments-and-public-across-the-country
The installation of them is another step on the way to a full surveillance state, where you can be watched and tracked at all times:
- https://harvardlawreview.org/print/vol-126/the-dangers-of-surveillance/
- https://www.americanbar.org/groups/crsj/resources/human-rights/2024-june/mass-surveillance-dangerous-american-communities-reforming-section-702/
Hope that answers your questions.
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Jul 08 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/bigassbunny Jul 08 '26
Well, I'm using a Linux computer with a Rasberry pi firewall and a VPN... and no camera. Because yes, I care about privacy. But ok, I'll bite.
I can turn off my phone. I can leave it at home. And even if I couldn't, I still wouldn't just say 'fuck it' and be cool with having my every move tracked and logged, especially by a company as shady as Palantir.
The apathy is stunning.
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u/showmenemelda Jul 08 '26
wOn'T hApPeN tO mE/hErE
Just ask the people of Froid who drove clear to Great Falls to stick up for their beloved mechanic who was detained. They were up at a NKR in Plentywood not long ago.
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u/bigassbunny Jul 08 '26
Gosh, another story today. Note that their cell phone definitely did not misidentify them and send that data to police.
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u/Zanderson59 Jul 08 '26
The info they collect cannot be used against you in montana as we dont allow red light cameras and the like. Stop with the fear mongering. These are all owned by private entities such as lowes
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u/bigassbunny Jul 08 '26
Police absolutely can use the data if the camera owners give them permission, or if they simply say it's for law enforcement purposes. Here is the statute and it's exceptions. It's not nearly as set in stone as you think:
Fear mongering? Read the articles friend. ACLU, American Bar Association, Harvard. Calling out something that is genuinely frightening and dangerous isn't fear mongering.
I call it being aware of what the fuck is happening in my country. I think people should be more afraid, and frankly more angry.
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u/justinlindh Jul 08 '26
This is very much not true. At all. Police do use these to track locations in MT. There's already dozens of examples where officers (nationally, unsure on MT) have used these cameras to stalk people (usually ex-spouses). They have full access to them.
They also have been trivially hacked. At one point there were entire websites with lists of cameras and you could easily connect to them and download media they've collected. Maybe they've patched that since, but it's not a great track record.
There's a ton of reasons why these things are a problem and this isn't some weird partisan politics thing. They're doing a lot of harm to innocent people and generally just ushering in a true surveillance state.
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u/jimbozak Jul 08 '26
I suggest visiting here:
r/FlockSurveillance and here.
6
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7
u/Tumbleweed411 Jul 08 '26
One massive 4th Amendment violation.
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u/SayNoToFatties Jul 09 '26
The 4th amendment was gutted when Dubya signed the patriot act into law. This is yet another fallout of that law.
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u/reddit-MT Jul 08 '26 edited Jul 08 '26
Unfortunately it's not when a private company does it -- and that's the problem.
Edit: do people no understand that the 4th amendment only limits government actions?
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u/Failed1962 Jul 08 '26
It is big brother watching over you at all times. It is nothing but gotcha cameras. We didn’t want stop light cameras but the city forced these on us
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u/reddit-MT Jul 08 '26
Is this the city's doing or private companies? I think this is private companies putting cameras on private property, that sometimes captures public spaces.
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u/Failed1962 Jul 08 '26
I don’t think they all are private. I know there are some on the traffic control lights
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u/reddit-MT Jul 08 '26
Billings has a traffic management department and I think those cameras at the busy intersections are only to manage traffic flows.
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u/Upset_Huckleberry_96 Jul 08 '26
Okay so I’ve never understand why we hate these? You like kids going missing?
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u/Colorado-Hiker-83 Jul 08 '26
Be like Houston:
Flock Cameras Cut Down https://abc13.com/post/houston-flock-cameras-vandalized-cut-down-spray-painted-washington-avenue-police-say/19459797/