Flock cameras used to arrest a child for playing on a swing?

uberman

When I was a kid twisting a swing so you could ride it as it untwisted was something that happend dozens of times every recess. This was something every kid did. If your playground equipment falls apart as a result of the standard way kids use a swing then I think that is a manufacture issue not criminal behavior by a 10 year old

jerlam

Here is a direct news link to the actual incident: https://www.cbsnews.com/pittsburgh/news/springdale-girls-cou...

nomagicbullet

I don't think we understand yet the kind of world we are building. All the small decisions we are making will shape our future: algorithmic decision making, social network broadcasting and "self-reporting", light-speed meme transmission, always-on audio and video surveillance... the list goes on and on. One day we'll wake up to see we've build a jail around us we can't escape.

neilv

That link is an activist YouTube channel. Closest I could find to a news organization reporting on this: https://www.wtae.com/article/springdale-playground-swing-cou...

donmcronald

If the chain broke from twisting it up and letting it go, it was in disrepair before the kids started using it. Maybe the city admin should be charged with negligence for letting the infrastructure crumble.

kwarcode

How did they ID the children from photos?

k310

Government and industry enter the Epstein zone. Creep-shooting little kids. Not surprised at all.

fedpost

There are plenty of people here working on surveillance tech. Is this the world you want to be building?

Dig1t

I thought these cameras were only used to read license plates. What happened to that discussion?

demibabs

As much as I dislike flock, this only seems like an indictment on the police.

aspbee555

How much money did they waste in police and court resources over a swing obviously in disrepair if it broke so easily? How much resources/money did they waste having someone create invoices for numerous children/families? How much resources/money did they waste on harassing/tormenting children and their families instead of just fixing the damn thing? So nice to see such enormous time and resources being spent on catching actual criminals

jolmg

> They tell me in a lengthy statement in part that the department would never issue an ultimatum of pay for the damage or your children will be charged. They tell me quote, "We simply don't operate that way." Rather, the department's approach was consistent among the five juveniles involved in the incident. The damage was divided equally and an opportunity was provided to address the matter through restitution rather than unnecessarily continuing juvenile proceeding. Lol. The same thing, but obfuscated. It's not "pay for the damage"; it's "an opportunity was provided to address the matter through restitution". It's not "or your children will be charged"; it's "rather than unnecessarily continuing juvenile proceeding". Add extra fluff at the start to bury the lede, then avoid the trigger words and pretend it's something different.

heaney-555

Is everyone going to ignore that those are not Flock cameras? Why is the quality of discussion on this topic on HN so poor? I'm not even pro-Flock, but a blatantly false post like this is just pathetic discourse.

LastTrain

So the kids were playing on equipment that fell apart and now they owe money? The city is lucky they didn't get injured.

123hafd

True disruption! In 1933 the Nazis needed a human, called Blockwart, to surveil the immediate neighborhood block. This has been automated. Shall we call the cameras Flockwart?

mikestew

Three questions: 1. Why is the city creeping on children with surveillance cameras? I'd be tempted to run for city council and beat that drum until the head broke (but then I'd have to serve on the city council). 2. How did they identify the children enough to come to their home? Might have read the license plate, but reporting is unclear. 3. Why is our municipality buying such crappy equipment that it fails when kids do what kids have done with swings for 100 years or more?

kstrauser

OK, big surveillance fans: please explain why this is OK because "it's not the government", and this keeps us safe, and we don't have any expectation of privacy. It's inevitable that someone is going to claim it's a great idea. Let's get it out of the way.

neya

Bulk of these cameras are actually installed at the behest of the control freaks sitting on HOAs. They are the real target audience for these cameras because they love the power trip over other people. It seems if you don't get enough attention as a child, you will just grow up to become a control freak.

bluGill

https://www.cpsc.gov/s3fs-public/325_PublicPlaygroundSafetyH... 'Children tend to swing on their stomach. This behavior should be discouraged.' Not banned, discouraged. I recommend reading the whole thing, it is surprisingly well done and covers a lot of things that should be obvious but are easy to forget.

stop50

Is it weird for me that i think this helps pedophiles so much in finding victims? We know that the leader flock is having security problems where literally anyone could access the livestreams, the others are probably not better. My worst fear would be that pedophiles would use the streams to find and abduct victims in broad daylight by posing as cops.