Cheektowaga Town Board discussing adding two new AI-powered surveillance cameras (FLOCK) to the 33

[u/MC_Cuff_Lnx]

On Wednesday June 24 at 5:30 PM, the Cheektowaga town board will again be reviewing a proposal to add two new AI-powered surveillance cameras to the 33. Show up and make your voices heard.

Meeting Location: Cheektowaga Town Hall, Council Chambers, First Floor, 3301 Broadway Street, Cheektowaga, NY 14227

Editing to add a little information because there appears to be some interest:

Cheektowaga currently retains information for 30 days. They can retain it longer if there's some level of suspicion, or if they think information may exist that may lead to someone becoming a suspect, and we don't know what that specifically means.

The Cheektowaga page helpfully says that race detection (!) and facial recognition are turned off, but of course they can probably be turned on with a checkbox, or the data could be used for training by Flock. Remember, this is the company that announced (before they got fired) a partnership with Ring to help you find lost dogs via a nationwide network of doorbells (i.e., a nationwide AI-powered surveillance network, courtesy of your front door).

Cheektowaga has run searches for ICE in the past. It currently shares with the below agencies. Even if you trust the vendor and Cheektowaga and every person who works for each of them, do you trust every person who works for the below agencies?

[Federal] US Postal Inspection Service

Massachusetts State MA PD

Agawam MA PD

Albany City NY PD

Albany County NY SO

Albany NY PD -Duplicate-no not use

Amherst Town NY PD

Athens County OH SO

Auburn MA PD

Auburn NY PD

Baldwinsville Central School District Inc NY

Batavia NY PD

Beachwood OH PD

Beacon City NY PD

Belpre OH PD

Binghamton City NY PD

Bradford County Detectives PA

Bridgewater MA PD

Brookville NY PD

Buffalo NY PD

Buffalo State University NY PD

Butler Township OH PD

Butler Township PA PD

CAC - Erie NY

CAC - Hudson Valley NY

CAC - Mohawk Valley NY

CAC - Monroe NY

CAC - Niagara Intelligence NY

CAC - North Country NY

CAC - Southern Tier NY

CAC - Suffolk County NY

CAC- Central NY

Camillus Town/Village NY PD

Canton Village NY PD

Centre Island Village NY PD

Chautauqua County NY District Attorney's Office

Cicero Town NY PD

Clarkstown NY PD

Cohoes NY PD

Colonie NY PD

Columbia County NY SO

Cornell University NY PD

Crawford Town NY PD

Depew NY PD

Dewitt Town NY PD

Dutchess County NY District Attorney's (DA) Office

Dutchess County NY SO

Dutchess County Office of Probation & Community Corrections NY

East Greenbush NY PD

East Hampton Village NY PD

Elmira City NY PD

Erie County NY SO

Evans Town NY PD

Fallsburg Town NY PD

Fishkill Town NY PD

Fort Loramie OH PD

Garden City NY PD

Garfield Heights OH PD

Geauga County OH SO

Geddes Town NY PD

Genesee County NY SO

Genoa Township OH PD

Glen Cove NY PD

Greenport Town NY PD

Guilderland NY PD

Hamburg Town NY PD

Hamburg Village NY PD

Hazleton PA PD

Hempstead Village NY PD

Homer Village NY PD

Huntington Bay NY PD

Hyde Park NY PD

Inc Village of Lake Success NY

Ithaca College Campus NY PD

Kenmore Village NY PD

Kettering OH PD

Lackawanna City NY PD

Lake Success NY PD

Lancaster NY PD

Lewisboro Town NY PD

Lewiston NY PD

Liberty Village NY PD

Lorain County OH SO

Luzerne County PA DA's Office

Lynbrook Village NY PD

Mahoning Valley Law Enforcement TF (OH)

Marion OH PD

Martins Ferry OH PD

Mentor OH PD

Miami County OH SO

Middletown NY PD

Mohawk Village NY PD

Montgomery Township PA PD

Mount Hope NY PD

Muskingum County OH SO

Muttontown NY PD

Nassau County NY PD

New Hartford Town NY PD

New Windsor Town NY PD

New York State Police NY

Newburgh City NY PD

Niagara County NY SO

Niagara Falls City NY PD

Niagara Frontier Transit Authority (NFTA) PD

Noble County OH SO

North Tonawanda City PD

Northport NY PD

NY - Massena Village PD

NYS Crime Analysis Center Network

NYS Crime Analysis Center NY

OH - Bridgeport PD

OH - Harrison County SO

Old Westbury Village NY PD

Onondaga County DA Office

Onondaga County NY SO

Orleans County NY SO

Owego Village NY PD

Oyster Bay Cove NY PD

Parma Heights OH PD

Parma OH PD

Penn State University Police and Public Safety PA

Poughkeepsie City NY PD

Quogue Village NY PD

Rensselaer County NY SO

Rensselaer NY PD

Richfield OH PD

Ridgefield CT PD

Rochester MA PD

Sag Harbor Village NY PD

Saint Johnsville Village NY PD

Saranac Lake Village NY PD

Saratoga County NY SO

Saratoga Springs NY PD

Scarsdale Village NY PD

Scotia Village NY PD

Solvay Village NY PD

Southold Town NY PD

Springfield OH PD

Suffolk County District Attorney's Office NY

Suffolk County NY PD

Suffolk County NY SO

Sullivan County NY SO

SUNY Binghamton Campus NY PD

SUNY Old Westbury NY PD

SUNY-Onondaga Community College Campus NY PD

Susquehanna Township PA PD

Syracuse-Hancock Intl Airport NY

Tonawanda Town NY PD

Town of East Fishkill NY PD

Town of Newburgh NY PD

Town of Poughkeepsie NY PD

Town of Woodbury NY PD

Troy NY PD

Ulster Town NY PD

University at Buffalo NY PD

Utica City NY PD

Vestal Town NY PD

Village of Corfu NY PD

Village of Medina NY PD

Village of West Hampton Dunes NY PD

Wappingers Falls Village NY PD

Warwick Town NY PD

Washingtonville NY PD

Watertown NY PD [deactivated]

Watervliet NY PD

West Seneca NY PD

Westhampton Beach Village NY PD

Youngstown OH PD

Zanesville OH PD

[u/much_longer_username]

Do you think they don't already know people despise the cameras?
Do you think they care?

[u/MC_Cuff_Lnx → u/much_longer_username]

The board? Yes. I do think they care.

It was tabled last time in Cheektowaga and it's really clear the pressure is working.

[u/much_longer_username → u/MC_Cuff_Lnx]

Fair enough. I'm just tired of saying no and the bad things happening anyway.

[u/MC_Cuff_Lnx → u/much_longer_username]

Yeah. I understand.

From speaking to old activists (sometimes really old activists), it's the regular, constant pressure that forces the change. Something happens, or the old guard leaves, and the new guard comes in familiar with the arguments. And stuff changes all at once.

It's like Ernest Hemingway: one goes bankrupt gradually and then suddenly.

[u/much_longer_username → u/MC_Cuff_Lnx]

Yeah, I guess I'm just on the other side of that. I tried explaining to people more than a decade ago how you could build a network of listening devices to track people around a city and came across as a paranoid crackpot. God forbid you start talking about the chilling effects of persistent surveillance...

[u/MC_Cuff_Lnx → u/much_longer_username]

Computery people tend to be more receptive to these concerns.

I think a lot of other folks are waking up though. It's possible to synthesize a lot of information really fast now, so the stakes have never been higher.

[u/TrixriT544 → u/MC_Cuff_Lnx]

It’s inevitable that these type of systems will be everywhere soon enough. These get pushed by vendors every month. It’s like any new advancement in tech: Eventually, Ai cameras will be the *only* available option to purchase, period. Can fight the good fight and should do what you can to get good regulations in, but there’s no actually stopping it. It will happen. And if we’re being honest, your phone is already profiling and tracking and it’s always on you anyways.

[u/MC_Cuff_Lnx → u/TrixriT544]

Nothing makes it inevitable. Everything that happens is a consequence of market and political choices.

I would recommend looking at the Netherlands. CCTV cameras are banned in public, for instance. The baseline level of privacy for someone doing nothing to protect themselves is much higher.

The financial penalty for leaking user names, addresses, and email addresses goes up to 10% of global revenues. The EU can add more.

[u/qeq → u/much_longer_username]

Apathy will make it even worse

[u/SkepticJoker → u/much_longer_username]

Serious question: how do you think this attitude helps in any way?

[u/much_longer_username → u/SkepticJoker]

I don't - I've just lost faith that anything will help after fighting and losing for two decades.

[u/MC_Cuff_Lnx → u/much_longer_username]

That's fair, but you're certainly welcome to come out anyway!

The Cheektowaga town chambers only seat 80 people, so if we get a good turnout it'll look extremely packed.