You've probably seen them, you've definitely heard of them. Flock Cameras have been cropping up in cities and towns across the country and residents in Conroe don't appreciate the added surveillance.
Flock Cameras where orginonally billed as simple license plate readers meant to help law enforcement, but according to community activists, they're actually a whole lot more than that.
James Fletes, a Conroe resident who has been actively speaking out against the use of Flock Cameras in Conroe, explained how advanced they really are, saying, "I probably pass 6 or 7 of them every day on the way to work. They log that into a system that's shared with about 7,000 other agencies."
Fletes also says these cameras are easy to hack, and there have already been examples of them being used for purposes beyond their original intent. What makes these cameras even more concerning to Fletes and other members of the Conroe community is that they're AI-powered, and do a whole lot more than just track cars.
"It tracks when you go to church, where you go to church, if you have a new person in your vehicle, it logs that. This is just AI surveillance that's getting out of hand," Fletes said. Fletes also claims that these cameras could call on law enforcement to stop your vehicle if they see you've simply driven past something like a known drug hotspot. Even if you didn't know you did, and didn't mean to.
He went on to say that these cameras are an invasion of privacy and completely unnecessary.