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The law’s gaze has grown harder to escape, as surveillance drones and AI-integrated cameras now track movement across public and private spaces alike. And as one Virginia resident recently discovered, Johnny Law is a good listener, too.
According to reporting by Virginia’s WSLS 10, Kat Vaughn of Roanoke was alarmed to discover a Flock audio detection pole had been erected in her front yard. Vaughn told the station that she returned home from a brief trip to a nearby park to discover the freshly-installed device sitting in the parkway strip, the section of public land between her lawn and the street.
The ominous pylon was later identified as a Flock Raven audio detection unit, after a police officer was dispatched to investigate. These devices are basically the police tech firm Flock Safety’s version of the infamous ShotSpotter sensors, a category of audio-surveillance devices which legal analysts say come with significant civil liberty and privacy concerns.
Instead of providing clarity, identifying the device has only created more questions for Vaughn.
“When the officer got out here, he wasn’t sure what it was either,” the Virginia resident told WSLS. “So, we went and got a tall ladder to be able to get up to take a picture of it closer. And he said, yeah, I think you’re right. It’s a gun surveillance device. And he said that they actually weren’t supposed to be installed until July.”
Though WSLS reports the Roanoke city council had approved the deployment of 75 Raven sensors at various locations throughout the city, the patch of land in front of Vaughn’s house wasn’t on the list. Vaughn says she’s still waiting for an explanation.
“We didn’t receive anything in the mail,” Vaughn told the broadcaster. “I double checked to make sure that there was no emails or anything about it.”
The city police department’s full response to questions by local journalists was maddening, emblematic of the way these devices are being rolled out across the country without oversight: “we are working on this.”
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