Full transcript
Hey everybody, how's it going? Hope
you're having a lovely day. Welcome to
today's episode of You Are Being
Surveiled by AI cameras everywhere you
go and you're paying for it. I'm your
host, Lewis Rossman. Today we're going
to be discussing flock cameras. I'm not
going to call them license plate readers
because I don't accept the premise of
[ __ ] nor do I use their vocabulary
when they are disingenuous and trying to
convince me that I should pay them money
to be able to be watched everywhere that
I go. I got access to an email that I
don't think was supposed to go to the
person that it was sent to. and it was
making arguments for why there should be
AI powered surveillance cameras that are
installed all over the city that we pay
for that are and just no I'm going to
dig into this. I'm going to go through
what these cameras are, what they're
capable of, and why you should want them
the [ __ ] out of your city. This argument
going back and forth is in Iowa, but
I've heard the exact same [ __ ] said for
these cameras getting installed
virtually everywhere. It's the same line
of argumentation, and I want you to tell
me if you feel like it hits a nerve. Our
police chief needs our support to allow
license plate readers. The left ACLU
claims it is an investion invest
invasion investion of privacy. They had
a group at the last council meeting
against this in a petition. I have a
petition to be signed. I will be at the
next council meeting. This is a great
way to keep bad guys out of oo out of
our town. I appreciate any help from
your friends can provide by speaking at
our next council meeting in favor and in
support of these. There have been
anti-came protesters who have appeared
at past council meetings and the council
needs your pro camera citizens to come
into our next council meeting to speak
in support of these cameras. Here are
some bullet points. These cameras are
not facial recognition cameras and they
only look at license plates and vehicle
features. The data captured by these
cameras is not used for immigration
enforcement efforts, only for stolen
vehicles or vehicles associated with
persons with outstanding warrants. No
law-abiding citizen needs to have any
concerns. The protesters claim that
these cameras are an invasion of
privacy. The fact is they are already
being tracked by facial recognition
cameras every time they go to a store or
get money from an ATM or get gas.
Everyone can already be tracked with
their cell phone, buy their computers
and internet activities, buy technology
in an automobile. Protesters are not
using common sense and are trying to
flame fear over facts/logic. Again,
these cameras provide extra eyes to help
law enforcement fight crime, find law
breakers, and help keep our community
safer. These cameras provide extra law
enforcement without the cost of
additional police officers. And if
you're not breaking any laws, you have
nothing to be concerned about, and you
should be thankful. Thank you for your
help. This is the most disingenuous pile
of [ __ ] I've ever seen. Uh, it is fairly
late. It's about 1:30 in the morning.
So, I'm going to be reading the reply
that I have set up that I would like to
be able to read if I'm asked to speak at
the next city council meeting. What is
this thing? This is an AI surveillance
camera. That's what this is. AI powered
surveillance cameras that you're paying
for. Why do I call it an AI powered
surveillance camera instead of a license
plate reader like everybody else? Good
question. When you take a look at their
own marketing materials on their website
from flocksafety.com, it says, and I
quote, "No plate, no problem. Capture
more detailed with vehicle fingerprint
and flock free form. Turn images into
actionable evidence. No plate required."
What are these capable of reading? The
system catalogs vehicles based on
numerous distinguishing features,
including make, model, color, bumper
stickers, dents, damage pattern, roof
racks, aftermarket modifications such as
wheels or spoilers, window stickers, and
even mismatching paint colors. Flock
claims this capability is, and I quote,
unique among ALPR systems and allows law
enforcement to search for vehicles based
on these characteristics, even without a
visible plate. So, if I can search for a
car based on a fingerprint that's been
created from it, based on its scratches,
based on its bumper stickers, and
everything else, that is not a license
plate reader, that is an AI powered
surveillance camera. When I was showing
you how image works, it's a really cool
program you can install on your phone. I
can use this with a piece of [ __ ] seller
that's downstairs. I can search for
sports car and it will show me
everywhere that there is a sports car. I
can go cat in share and it will show me
every time there's been a cat in a
chair. I can search for angry cat and
it'll show me this. And if I search for
happy cat, well, it's it's it's kind of
hard to tell. The difference between
something being able to read a license
plate or a face or the picture of a
beautiful kitty is the type of prompt
that you use and the model that is
loaded. And if I want to change the
model that image is using, it's as
simple as three clicks. And it's likely
as simple as that for this. It's not an
license plate reader. It's an AI
surveillance camera. And if we're going
to have an honest conversation, we have
to call them what they are. I do not
accept the premise of [ __ ] nor do I
allow them to dictate the vocabulary
that I will use when describing what it
is we're arguing about. If it works,
when there's no license plate installed
in the car, it is not a [ __ ] license
plate reader. It is an AI powered
surveillance camera. That's what that
is. I'm going to read for you from some
of the notes that I have created for
myself if I have a chance to speak at
the next city council hearing. Number
one, these cameras are not facial
recognition and only look at license
plates. The difference between an AI
facial recognition camera and an AI
license plate camera is one click.
Facebook was for connecting with college
friends and now profits off algorithms
targeting teenagers who hate their
self-image. Ring was a doorbell that now
gives police footage without a warrant.
Calling this a license plate cameras
highly disingenuous. Flock creates
vehicle fingerprints, tracking your
car's bumper stickers, dents, and
modifications to the point that it can
recognize your car, even if it does not
have the license plate. They don't need
to see your face when they can identify
you by the unique pattern of scratches
and lopsided placement of your bumper
sticker. It's like saying, "I'm not
recording your voice. I'm just following
you around and writing down everything
you say, cuz that makes it so much
better." Next, the data is not used for
immigration enforcements. There are over
4,000 immigration searches in Flock's
database. A DEA agent was caught using
an Illinois cop's password to run
immigration searches. Saying the data
isn't used for immigration enforcement
is like saying your browser history
isn't used for targeted ads. It's
technically against the rules, but it
happens every day. The difference is
when Facebook violates their terms, you
see weird ads. When Flock violates
theirs, families get separated and
people get held at gunpoint who are not
guilty of anything. Which brings me to
my next point here. No law-abiding
person needs to have any concerns. Yeah,
tell tell Jacqueline Gonzalez about
that. Jacqueline Gonzalez was a
21-year-old that was held at gunpoint
with her 12-year-old sister because
Flock's AI read a two as a seven. Tell
that to the woman in Kansas whose
ex-husband cop tracked her over 200
times. In October 2022, Kansas Police
Lieutenant Victor Hyier was arrested and
later pleaded guilty to computer crimes
and stalking after using flock cameras
228 times over four months to track his
arange wife's movements. In a separate
Kansas incident, Sedwick Police Chief
Lee Nygard access flock data 164 times
to track his ex-girlfriend before
resigning and admitting to the misuse.
In Espanola, New Mexico, 21-year-old
Jacqueline Gonzalez and her 12-year-old
sister were held at gunpoint and
handcuffed after flock system mistook a
two for a seven on their license plate,
falsely flagging their vehicle as
stolen. And let's go back to the whole
[ __ ] on the left versus right thing
where the left ACLU is is against this
in the beginning of that person's email.
Let's say you're a conservative. Let's
say you're a conservative in 2020 who
lives in California and you want to go
outside. Do you want Gavin Newsome
having access to an AI powered
surveillance system? If you're a
conservative in Michigan and Gretchen
Whitmer tells you you can go to aisle 9
at Walmart but not aisle 10, do you want
her having access to some [ __ ] that will
send the [ __ ] alert to her phone and
the police because you decided to go to
the wrong aisle of Walmart that day?
This is not a left or a right. This is
up or down. This is do you want to live
in Black Mirror or do you want this [ __ ]
to be cancelled? I love this is one of
my favorite shows on earth, but I want
that [ __ ] to be canceled in real life
cuz I'm sick and tired of moving towards
that reality and having people look at
me like I'm crazy when I point it out.
You're already being tracked by stores,
ATMs, and phones. Okay, this is so
[ __ ] disingenuous. Let's go over the
stores and the ATMs. One, firstly, let's
say that a store has a camera system and
they can see when you walk by. Almost
every store has a security camera
system. This is different than having a
centralized system where hundreds upon
hundreds of cameras that are AI powered
are all accessible with just a login and
a user ID. As a cop, if I want to get
access to Lewis Rossman's cameras, I got
to go to his store because I don't have
a login and a user ID to that. Lewis
records his cameras to an NVR and hard
drives that are on his premises. I have
to have a warrant. And if I don't have a
warrant, I have to have a pretty good
[ __ ] reason. If a cop walks in, he
can't just say, "I want to stalk people
and I want to see where everybody was
that had this particular type of bumper
sticker at this point in time." So, I
can compare it to 80 other stores
cameras and put them all together so
that I could track where somebody went.
They can't do that. They have to show up
to my store and if they don't have a
warrant, they have to say, "Hey, you
remember that noise that you heard
around like 800 am on Monday right
before a bunch of red stuff splattered
on your window?" Yeah, I was kind of
wondering what that was. Yeah, somebody
got stabbed to death. Oh my, that's
horrible. And then I can give them my
camera footage, right? There has to be a
conversation back and forth. And then
that has to be replicated 10 or 20 or 50
times in order for him to have access to
the same amount of camera footage. It's
literally just enter your login and user
ID. You have access to 50 or 100
cameras. All those 50 or 100 cameras are
then put into some AI thing so that you
could find the exact piece of footage
you're looking for at the click of a
button. I want to follow Louiswis's
girlfriend everywhere she went for the
last 10 days. I want to know every
single meeting that Lewis went to and
how long it lasted. You can't do that
using the ATM camera. You can't do that
using the HB camera. You can't do that
with the [ __ ] $400 eBay CCTV setup
that grocery stores put together or the
camera on an ATM because they're all
siloed in individual locations. They all
connect to different systems and above
all they don't give the police access by
default. As a result of that, there is
friction and that friction is the
difference between the fourth amendment
and living in this [ __ ] dystopia that
you could see in this frontline
documentary on China from 2020. There is
a difference between my store camera
system, the ATM camera system at a
7-Eleven, and an AI powered surveillance
system that the police have access to
all from one database. The fact that I
even have to explain that having access
to hundreds of AI powered cameras all
within one database where I can type in
a basic prompt and have it show me every
ways that this person went versus 80
separate CCTV systems that are old
outdated [ __ ] with no AI. Like, do I
even have to explain this? Now, with
phones, a police officer that wants to
stalk their ex can use Flock to do that.
They cannot use their Google account to
do that. I have a Pixel phone. If I had
Lineage OS installed on my phone, I have
no Google stuff on my phone. But let's
say I did have Google stuff installed on
my phone. Can the police just log into
their Gmail account and know every place
I went for the last 30 days? There's a
little bit of friction there. They have
to go to Google with a [ __ ] reason
and a warrant. And even if it's not a
warrant and it's something other than
here is my login, let me see everywhere
this person went. Further, I can opt out
of having Google on my phone. I can opt
out of having location on. I can install
Lineage OS. I can run the battery out in
my phone. I can keep my phone at home. I
can't choose to not take main roads and
throw affairs and highways throughout
the city to conduct business, to go to
work, to go to the hospital, to see my
friends. You've made tracking mandatory,
unavoidable, and accessible at the click
of a button. It's the difference between
choosing to share your location with
Google and having the government mandate
I wear a collar. Protesters are not
using common sense and are trying to
flame fear. You're suggesting that the
world is so dangerous that we have to
spend millions of dollars of our own
money to have AI follow us around
everywhere that we go and report back to
you. No, my friend, I'm not the one
flaming fear. you are. If you're that
[ __ ] afraid of going outside, how
about you have a camera follow you
everywhere you go or stay the [ __ ]
doors. Let's talk about common sense.
Austin spent about $1.2 million in these
cameras. They scanned over 100 million
license plates. They got about 165
arrests. I went to a New York City
public school. My math ain't that good.
That's about $7,000 per arrest. You know
what else you can buy for that amount of
money? About a 100 hours of police time.
Who do you think solves more crimes? A
trained veteran police officer or an AI
playing Where's Waldo?
The numbers are right there and they're
horrible. I grew up in the 90s. I was
born in the 80s. My parents used to take
me around all the parks in New York City
when I was a kid. Even during New York
City's crack epidemic, I was there for
that. And it was not bad enough to
justify AI surveillance system being
installed that's watching us all the
time that can profile you and follow you
around and just know even that. And
while Austin is not a perfect city by
any stretch of the imagination, I've
walked around the parks here. It's not
that bad. These cameras provide extra
eyes to help law enforcement. No, they
provide extra eyes to anybody with
access. The Cedric police chief, the
Kansas police lieutenant who is stalking
his ex-wife. These are not helping law
enforcement or fighting crime. These
aren't extra eyes for law enforcement.
This is a sick [ __ ] wet dream. These
cameras provide law enforcement without
the cost of additional officers. So,
they're arguing that this is fiscally
responsible. Nothing says fiscally
responsible like paying $2,500 per
camera per year for a 0.00001%
success rate. Paying a private company
to build a surveillance network that has
this much potential for abuse with these
bad results is fiscally irresponsible.
If you're not breaking the laws, you
have nothing to be concerned about.
Show me your phone.
If you have not doing anything wrong,
you have nothing to hide, right? Show me
your phone and your laptop. Unlock it
right now. Bring it here.
You want to install a camera in your
bathroom, in your bedroom?
Can I watch you [ __ ] your wife? You're
not doing anything wrong, are you? I I
can't stand this because everybody who
who says this, if you have um if you're
a privacyoriented person, well, why do
you you don't have anything to hide, do
you? Every single time somebody says
this and I say, "Let me see your phone."
For 37 years, I have not had a single
person show me their phone, show me
their computer, give me their password.
Funny how that works. You know, there's
this line in the honeymooners. There was
this one episode where you go this heads
I win, tails you lose. I have image
installed on my phone. And it's a really
cool program where you can install your
own open- source AI models. You can have
them on your computer. It doesn't have
to connect to the internet and it can
classify your photos. It's really
awesome. I could type cat on share and
it finds cat on chair. If I type in
borderline personality disorder, a
friend of mine that has borderline
personality disorder actually shows up.
If I type in cancer patient, it will
show me a picture of a friend of mine 3
months before he even knew that he had
cancer. It's insanely good. When AI is
good, this is a bad [ __ ] idea. I do
not want something that is so good that
it can track me everywhere that I go. I
do not want something that could find
anybody who has a particular mental
disorder, particular political
viewpoint, health condition, and just be
able to follow them with no
accountability. Tails, when AI is bad,
you have innocent people being held at
gunpoint because it can't tell the
difference between a two and a seven.
Heads, AI works. The police chief can
stalk his ex-girlfriend. Tails, it
doesn't work. Innocent people get held
at gunpoint. Whether you think AI is
good or AI is bad, I don't care. It
doesn't work here. This is not a left
versus right issue. This is an up versus
down issue. Do you want to live in a
dystopia or do you want to live in a
normal society? When you look at these
documentaries like the one that I'm
going to link you to down below, this
frontline documentary on China and how
they use AI, when you look into the way
that these types of surveillance systems
work, these things did not start
overnight by saying, "We want to just
watch you everywhere you go and be able
to shame you if you've done something we
don't like." That's not like that's not
how this works. It starts by saying,
"It's just a license plate reader. If
you're not doing anything wrong, you
have nothing to worry about." In spite
of the fact that the thing reads
everything other than the [ __ ]
license plate to be able to build a
fingerprint on you and they advertise it
on their own website. This has so much
potential for abuse. Not just potential,
but it's been proven to be used for
abuse. This is not the same as
businesses having their own internal
security cameras that they show to
police upon request.
this is the police and whoever the [ __ ]
else they give that password to being
able to see every single camera and then
use AI to contextualize it and say where
did this person go during this time
period. Did this person go anywhere that
is a place that I would not like them to
go based on my personal preferences.
That's [ __ ] weird. The [ __ ] that
people could do with this, no thank you.
I am not some bleeding hard person that
sims for the criminal. Yes. New York
City Bodega owner arrested for
self-defense. Cleared on all charges.
Good. When there's a person breaking all
the cars on our block,
we ran out of the store
and we got them ourselves.
Right there. Right there.
He's right there with the stick.
This is This guy with the stick.
This guy with the stick.
He smashed a few cars on the
and it's fine.
[ __ ] piece of [ __ ] Camera battery
died. Point being, I don't want this to
turn into some right versus left [ __ ] or
some like, "Oh, you're soft on crime."
I'm not soft on crime at all. Like if
somebody breaks into my house, I'm not
one of those, why did you shoot him in
the knee? Like, he sleeps with my fish.
I I I have no sympathy for people that
go out of their way to make the world a
shittier place. At the same time, I also
believe that the people who want us to
live in an AI powered surveillance world
all the time just that they can feel a
little bit safer, are the people who are
the real fear-mongers, not me. I'm okay
going outside even when there's not a
camera following me around. And I think
that you should be, too. When you read
about how this has been implemented in
many other areas, it's one camera here
and two cameras there. And before you
know it, they have hundreds of cameras
all over the [ __ ] city that can be
used to stalk people and track them. I
want you to imagine that your worst
enemy is the person who has the ability
to log into this. Whether you're a
liberal afraid how this is going to be
used for immigration enforcement and
abortion or a conservative that wants to
know what would happen if there's a
repeat of 2020, this is a bad idea. You
don't want this [ __ ] in your city. You
have to start saying no. And I want to
say no at the very beginning. I don't
want to wait till there's hundreds of
these things all over the city. I want
to say no right now. Let them know you
don't want this [ __ ] in your city.
You're a taxpayer and your vote counts
as much as the [ __ ] Karen that wants
an AI camera following them everywhere
they go. The Karens win because they
show up. Let's show up instead. That's
it for today and as always, I hope you
learned something. See you in the next
video.