Latest news with #Flock
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Chivas eye return of academy graduate 👀
With the hiring of Gabriel Milito for the Chivas bench, the red-and-white management is working on reinforcements to build a competitive team that will fight for titles in the 2025 Apertura. That's why a new name has emerged on the list of possible reinforcements; Diego Campillo. That's right! The Flock would seek to recover its homegrown player, who currently plays for Juárez. Advertisement According to reports from Azteca Deportes, Guadalajara owns 50% of his card, so they would only have to pay Bravos around $1.7 million. This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here. 📸 VICTOR CRUZ - AFP or licensors
The Guardian
3 days ago
- General
- The Guardian
A dystopian surveillance fear has become reality in Texas
Hello and welcome to the latest edition of 'lo and behold, the dystopian thing that women and activists warned would happen ends up happening'. This time the issue is automated license plate readers (ALPRs), which capture (no prizes for guessing!) license plate data and allow law enforcement to build a picture of where a particular vehicle has been. There's no opting out of being tracked: if you drive, you should simply assume that these cameras, which are sometimes hidden in objects like traffic cones, are logging your movements. And you should assume that this license plate data can be combined with other surveillance data to paint a very detailed picture of your life. Privacy only exists for our billionaire overlords these days. The rest of us are just data points. There are obviously plenty of legitimate uses to ALPRs. Their proponents will wax lyrical about how they can help solve carjackings and kidnappings. But, like all technology, they are ripe for abuse. They are particularly ripe for abuse in an increasingly authoritarian US, full of lawmakers who want to control women's bodies. Back in 2022, a few months after Roe v Wade was overturned, the Guardian published a piece on ALPRs warning that 'an expanding web of license plate readers could be 'weaponized' against abortion'. It focused on a company called Flock, one of the big players in this space, which promises a 'holistic solution to crime'. Flock's technology could be used to 'criminalize people seeking reproductive health and further erode people's ability to move about their daily lives free from being tracked and traced', one expert told the Guardian at the time. Another civil rights expert warned that Flock, which has stated that it is happy to provide technology to help enact whatever laws have been passed, 'illustrates how surveillance isn't actually about benefiting society or protecting people – it's about enforcing the political goals of those in power'. Unfortunately, all these experts have been proved right. This week 404 Media reported that a Texas police officer used Flock to perform a nationwide search of more than 83,000 ALPR cameras while looking for a woman who had had an abortion. Abortion is almost entirely illegal in Texas but law enforcement reportedly looked at cameras in states such as Washington and Illinois where abortion is legal. Anti-abortion voices love to argue that they're not trying to control women, they're trying to protect women. Funnily enough this same talking point came up in this case. Sheriff Adam King of Johnson county, Texas, told 404 Media that the woman had self-administered the abortion 'and her family was worried that she was going to bleed to death, and we were trying to find her to get her to a hospital.' He added: 'We weren't trying to block her from leaving the state or whatever to get an abortion. It was about her safety.' Perhaps this was true in this case. Many of the details are still unclear so it's hard to tell. But even if this was purely benevolent surveillance, you can certainly see where all this is headed. 'This incident is undeniably a harbinger of more AI-enabled reproductive surveillance and investigations to come,' Ashley Emery, senior policy analyst in reproductive health and rights at the National Partnership for Women & Families, told 404 Media. 'Especially for women of color who are already over-surveilled and over-policed, the stakes couldn't be higher.' 'Texas is the land of freedom,' Governor Greg Abbott recently proclaimed. If you're a woman in Texas, however, 'freedom' seems to have quite a strange definition. Not only are you not allowed freedom over your reproductive decisions, a number of Texas city councils (some of which are composed entirely of male lawmakers) have been trying to pass travel bans that would stop Texans from driving to abortion appointments in other states. Abortion bans, attempted travel bans, and a network of surveillance technology that can be used to enforce these bans: this is what 'freedom' for women in Texas looks like. In the weeks and months after the 2023 Lahaina fire, 'one in six female fire survivors surveyed felt forced to engage in sexual acts in exchange for basic necessities such as food, clothing and housing', reports Nina Lakhani. 'Sexual violence has become so widespread in Darfur that many people chillingly speak about it as unavoidable,' Médecins Sans Frontières states in a horrifying update on the crisis. 'While Saudi Arabia celebrates being awarded the Fifa men's World Cup and meticulously promotes itself on the global stage as reformed, women who have dared to publicly call for more rights and freedoms have faced house arrest, jail and exile,' the Guardian reports. Saudi Arabia, it should be noted, has had a lot of help promoting itself as 'reformed' by the US media, which has run numerous puff pieces on Mohammed bin Salman – also known as the 'bone saw' prince. She was watering flowers when she was killed in an airstrike. The charred bodies of seven of Dr. Alaa al-Najjar's 10 children arrived at her hospital. Two others, including a seven-month-old, remain missing, presumably under the rubble. Despite pretending to be outraged about the slaughter in Gaza, the UK has sent its trade envoy to Israel to boost commercial links. Meanwhile US lawmakers are cheering the killing on. The percentage of mothers reporting 'excellent' mental health dropped from 38% in 2016 to 26% in 2023. This decline was observed across nearly every socioeconomic subgroup examined. Sign up to The Week in Patriarchy Get Arwa Mahdawi's weekly recap of the most important stories on feminism and sexism and those fighting for equality after newsletter promotion Pretty sure Pauline Al Said, who has been fined for stealing more than £1,000-worth of Le Creuset cookware, steaks, wine and gin, has taken a page out of the high-society scammer Anna Delvey's book. If you can grift your way to viral fame and a Netflix series then crime really does pay! (This should not be read as encouragement to do crime.) The lyrics include the following: 'Kathryn Bromwich from the Guardian states that Trans people make up roughly 0.5% of the UK population and are twice as likely to be victims of crime than cis people.' Nash told Attitude that she came out with the song because of JK Rowling's anti-trans activism. 'I just wanted it to be on record, in music history and in feminist history, for there to be somebody else in culture that is saying that I just don't believe that's feminism,' Nash told Attitude. The Euphoria actor, who has spoken out about being objectified by fans, is now selling soap made with her used bathwater. Un-brie-lievable. Here you go! You're welcome. Doug the Pug, a canine influencer with millions of followers, has received an honorary degree from the University of New Haven in Connecticut in 'Furensic Science'. He's already got an unofficial dogtorate in cuteness. Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist
Yahoo
3 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Police: Man arrested after multiple reports of women being groped near Fair Lakes
FAIRFAX COUNTY, Va. (DC News Now) — A man has been charged in Fairfax County after women reported being groped near Fair Lakes on Wednesday, police said. 33-year-old Gigssa Bekele Bengessa was charged in a series of sex-related crimes after eluding police for several hours. On May 28, around 5:05 p.m., officers with the Fairfax County Police Department (FCPD) responded to the 11700 block of Fair Oaks Mall in Fair Lakes for a sex offense case. Two victims reported that a man approached and touched them inappropriately. Trump administration targets DMV 'sanctuary cities,' threatens federal action While searching for the suspect, another report came in just before 5:20 p.m. regarding a man masturbating in a vehicle at the Fair Lakes Shopping Center. The suspect fled before police arrived. However, surveillance footage and vehicle information were obtained through Flock technology. Around 7:40 p.m., officers responded to the 12200 block of Fairfax Towne Center for a sex offense. The victim reported that a man approached her in the parking lot and assaulted her, police said. Nearly 45 minutes later, officers found Bekele Bengessa at his residence, where he assaulted an officer, FCPD noted. He was taken into custody after a brief struggle. Bekele Bengessa was transported to the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center and charged with two counts of sexual battery, indecent exposure, obstruction of justice and two counts of assault on law enforcement officers. He is being held on no bond. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Milwaukee PD accessed Illinois Flock cameras for classified investigation
The Milwaukee Police Administration Building downtown. (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner) Across the nation, law enforcement agencies are accessing Flock Automatic License Plate Reader (ALPR) camera databases, regardless of whether they have their own contract for the AI-powered system. Researchers from 404 Media published a data trove derived from Flock audits earlier this week. Although the audit data came from the Danville Police Department in Illinois, Wisconsin Examiner found that intelligence units within the Milwaukee Police Department (MPD) also appear in the database. The audit data shows that last year on July 15 and Oct. 21, personnel from the Southeastern Threat Analysis Center (STAC) — a homeland security-focused arm of the MPD's fusion center — conducted a total of three searches within Danville PD's Flock network. STAC gathers and disseminates intelligence across eight counties in southeastern Wisconsin. MPD's own Fusion Division is co-located with the STAC. Together the units operate a 'real time event center,' a vast network of both city-owned and privately owned cameras and operate Milwaukee's gunshot detection system known as Shotspotter. They also monitor social media and conduct various types of mobile phone-related investigations. STAC has also explored the use of drones, facial recognition technology and predictive intelligence. MPD's Flock searches were logged under the user name 'D. Whi' from 'Milwaukee WI PD – STAC'. In the dataset's 'reason' column, the searches were recorded as 'HSI investigation' and 'HSI vehicle loader.' Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) specialize in matters of immigration, illegal exporting, cyber crime and national security. By tapping into Danville's Flock data, according to the audit, STAC was able to access 4,893 Flock networks and an equal number of individual devices, such as cameras, for the July 15 search alone. The other two searches from October reached 5,425 Flock networks and devices and captured data from a one-month period. 404 Media's investigation focused on how Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has accessed Flock databases nationwide, despite not having a contract with the company themselves, and how various agencies appeared to conduct immigration-related searches. Whereas many searches were logged as 'immigration violation,' 'ICE' or even 'ICE ASSIST,' others only noted the involvement of HSI. In a statement sent Wednesday morning, an MPD spokesperson denied that STAC's use of Danville PD's Flock network was immigration-related. 'Information regarding this investigation is classified and not available as it is ongoing,' the spokesperson wrote in an email to Wisconsin Examiner. 'I can confirm it is related to a criminal investigation with HSI and not immigration related.' The spokesperson later added that this was a 'HIDTA investigation,' referring to a federal task force linked to the federal High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area program. MPD's HIDTA units are attached to the department's Special Investigations Division, a separate branch from the Fusion division and STAC. 'The majority of HIDTA and STAC investigations are classified,' the spokesperson wrote in the statement. 'Oftentimes, these investigations involved confidential informants and sometimes it could take years to resolve.' Several police departments in Milwaukee County utilize Flock cameras. MPD entered into its contract in 2022. Over 1,300 registered cameras operate across the city as part of Community Connect, a program supported by the Milwaukee Police Foundation, according to the program's web page, with nearly 900 'integrated' cameras which grant MPD real-time access. Both the use of automatic license plate readers and MPD's ability to participate in immigration enforcement are governed by specific policies. The department's immigration policy, SOP-130, cautions that 'proactive immigration enforcement by local police can be detrimental to our mission and policing philosophy when doing so deters some individuals from participating in their civic obligation to assist the police.' The policy limits MPD's ability to assist ICE with detaining or gathering information about a person to 'only when a judicial warrant is presented' and when the target is suspected of involvement in terrorism, espionage, a transnational criminal street gang, violent felony, sexual offense against a minor or was a previously deported felon. Privacy advocates have raised concerns and filed lawsuits over Flock's ability to collect and store data without a warrant. The license plate reader policy – SOP 735 – allows personnel to access data stored 'for the purposes of conducting crime trend analyses' but only when those activities are approved by a supervisor and are intended to 'assist the agency in the performance of its duties.' MPD personnel may use Flock to 'look for potentially suspicious activity or other anomalies that might be consistent with criminal or terrorist activity' and are not prohibited from 'accessing and comparing personal identifying information of one or more individuals who are associated with a scanned vehicle as part of the process of analyzing stored non-alert data.' Automatic license plate reading technology captures information from any passing car. In some cases, investigators may also place specific vehicles on a Be On the Lookout (BOLO) list, also known as a 'hot list', which notifies law enforcement whenever a specific vehicle is seen by a license plate reader-equipped camera. A Thursday morning public hearing held by the city's Finance and Personnel Committee considered whether more Flock cameras should be added to Milwaukee's already existing network. Ald. Scott Spiker spoke in support of the cameras, and said he worked to install license plate readers in his own district. Spiker described having discussions with local business district leaders and MPD's fusion center, which resulted in cameras being deployed on 27th Street. 'Don't ask me where, because I won't tell you,' said Spiker, adding that the cameras 'serve a variety of purposes' from combating car theft to aiding Amber and Silver Alerts. 'There's going to a broader question, which I imagine will be a subject of the public testimony, however, and I'm fine hearing it, but ultimately there's going to be a discussion to be had in the city of anything that smacks of surveillance software, and what sort of oversight is provided, and should be provided,' said Spiker. He added that such a discussion 'will be had in full in Public Safety' and that although he welcomed public testimony, the committee was there to discuss approving a contract, and not concerns over surveillance. 'The camera's already in use by MPD, and in use by our parking checkers,' said Spiker. 'When they do night parking enforcement, they use ALPR's. When they do zoning enforcement during the day, they use ALPR's. So these are already in use. They have no facial recognition or any of the stuff that's been in the news. But it is a legitimate question to ask what degree of surveillance of any sort, given the national context, do we want to have oversight over?' Spiker said that there's a 'big debate' about surveillance but that 'we can't sort that out today.' Amanda Merkwae, advocacy director with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Wisconsin, complained that the public had not been alerted ahead of time about the discussion of the Flock contract. 'I've been checking daily and the documents in this file and the text of the resolution weren't posted until yesterday [Wednesday] afternoon,' said Merkwae. 'So I think for an item that has significant implications for the civil liberties of Milwaukeeans, particularly the most vulnerable resident, that's concerning.' The agenda had been out for over a week, and was amended a couple of days before the hearing, Ald. Marina Dimitrijevic later explained. Merkwae said, 'We know that ICE has gained access to troves of data from sanctuary cities to aid in its raids and immigration enforcement actions, including data from the vast network of license plate readers across the country.' She cited a 404 Media investigation earlier this month, which found that Flock is building a massive people look-up tool which pulls in different forms of data, including license plate reader data, 'in order to track specific individuals without a warrant.' Merkwae also referenced 404 Media's findings this week revealing immigration-related look-ups, as well as the classified investigation that involved MPD's intelligence units. The advocacy director also questioned what MPD's policies mean in practice when federal or out-of-state law enforcement want to access its Flock databases. 'If law enforcement told us that they wanted to put a tracking device on every single car in the country so that we know where every car is every single moment of the day, and we're going to build a database of all those locations run by an unaccountable private company, and accessible to every law enforcement agency across the country without needing any type of a warrant, I think we would be alarmed and we would have some follow-up questions,' said Merkwae. 'So at the end of the day, we think the public deserves to know how it is being surveilled and the common council deserves to know the answers to some pretty basic questions before approving contracts for surveillance technology that's deployed without a warrant.' In 2023, Fox 6 published a map of Flock cameras operated by MPD. The map, broken up by aldermadic district, shows a large cluster of cameras located on the North Side around District 7, as well as a cluster on the South Side around District 8. Smaller clusters of cameras were located on the East, far Southwest Side and Northwest Side of the city. signal-2025-05-29-135844 After Merkwae testified, Spiker raised a question about whether public testimony should continue, given open meetings laws. A lengthy discussion followed about which issues and topics may be discussed in the hearing by committee members, which halted public testimony for over 20 minutes as alders heard from city attorneys and MPD. Ald. Miele Coggs said hearing the public's concerns before a contract is approved for surveillance technology was important. Ald. Dimitrijevic also stressed that public comment was an important step, saying that the committee would not go into closed session to discuss the Flock contract before the public finished speaking, or otherwise limit public testimony. When public testimony continued, Milwaukee residents shared further concerns about the technology. Ron Jansen said that the city has seen a surge of surveillance gear used by MPD. 'Between the growth of a fascist regime in Washington … and our own militarized and violent police force here in Milwaukee, it's clear that the last thing we need is more ways for police to track us,' Jansen said. He added that Flock networks are capable of tracking and cataloging 'people's every movement throughout a given day' even if they're not the target of an investigation. Other residents, including locals from Spiker's district and representatives from the court diversion non-profit program JusticePoint, also spoke against Flock's expansion. Tara Cavazos, executive director of the South 27th Street Business District, said Flock cameras had made her area safer. 'We are the initiators of these three additions to the Flock network,' said Cavazos. 'And we donated the funds for two years of use of these Flock cameras. So they're not coming from MPD's budget, it's coming out of our budgets. These Flocks are not going to be placed in a neighborhood, it's not specific to any vulnerable communities, they are in business districts on state and county highways.' Cavazos said that since Flocks have been deployed, car thefts declined 'significantly on the south end of our corridor, where the border between Milwaukee and Greenfield is,' and that 'we've caught a homicide suspect.' Leif Otteson, an executive director of two business districts, said that he hears from people who want more surveillance. Otteson recalled working to expand the city's ring camera network, which STAC and other parts of MPD's fusion center have access to. Otteson has talked with people who want cameras in their community gardens and other areas. 'I just want to make that clear, that people like myself are getting those requests,' said Otteson. Once public testimony concluded, the committee went into closed session for over an hour. The discussion pertained to an unspecified 'non-standard' provision in the Flock contract, which had been raised by the city attorney's office. When the committee returned to open session, they voted 4-1 to hold the file due to legal concerns with the contract until the next committee meeting on June 18. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
4 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Milwaukee Flock camera expansion proposed; opponents want answers
The Brief Milwaukee police want to add more Flock cameras to a neighborhood on the city's south side. Opponents of the Flock camera expansion are worried about who will be monitoring the cameras' use. The proposal for expansion has been tabled for now. MILWAUKEE - There is a clash in Milwaukee over police surveillance and an effort to expand a system of law enforcement cameras. Police say the sole purpose of the Flock cameras is to take a picture of a license plate. But those opposed to the expansion want to know, who is watching the police? What we know Privacy, security and surveillance were the themes of the Finance and Personnel Committee meeting on Thursday, May 29. A proposed contract with Flock Group Inc. would add three more AI-powered license plate readers on Milwaukee's south side. What they're saying "Our stolen cars have gone down significantly on the south end of our corridor," said Tara Cavazos, Executive Director for the S. 27th Street Business Improvement District (BID). The BID is requesting the additional cameras. FREE DOWNLOAD: Get breaking news alerts in the FOX LOCAL Mobile app for iOS or Android "These flocks are not going to be placed in a neighborhood. It is not specific to vulnerable communities. They are in business districts on state and county highways," Cavazos said. Dig deeper Right now, there are more than 30 Flock cameras in the city of Milwaukee. Previous FOX6 investigations have uncovered the camera system's rapid growth in Wisconsin and the rest of the country. But not everyone is on board. What they're saying "All this does is create another avenue for MPD, ICE and other agencies to endlessly track people they choose to target," said Ron Jansen of Milwaukee. SIGN UP TODAY: Get daily headlines, breaking news emails from FOX6 News "How does the surveillance technology work? What's the fiscal impact of the technology? What and whose information is being collected and how is data stored?" asked Amanda Merkwae of ACLU of Wisconsin. Dig deeper Across southeast Wisconsin, Flock cameras have assisted in several investigations like hit-and-run crashes. Heather Hough, the Milwaukee Police Department Chief of Staff, told FOX6 News there are security requirements about who can access Flock cameras. "These cameras aren't equipped to identify people. They are license plate readers," Hough said. But a group of Milwaukee organizations is now asking for a bill that would require more public discussion and oversight. The committee on Thursday voted to postpone the discussion to a later date. The Source The information in this post was produced by FOX6 News after sitting in on a Common Council committee hearing.
