End the use of Flock cameras at Virginia Tech.
The Issue
Virginia Tech Police Department operates an array of Flock Safety cameras on Virginia Tech campus. These AI-powered mass surveillance cameras do much more than track license plates. They create a pattern of your movements everywhere you go and combine with over 135,000 other cameras nationwide to create a searchable database accessible to ANY flock customer nationwide with NO WARRANT and no probable cause. The use of these cameras is a violation of your 4th amendment rights, and they repeatedly are abused by law enforcement to stalk ex-girlfriends, conduct ICE operations, profile your every movement, and make detainments based on AI algorithms, not to mention the high level of false positives resulting in innocent people being detained at gunpoint due to an AI algorithm misreading a plate.
These cameras create a mass surveillance infrastructure that could be so easily abused that it must be removed. Do not be fooled by the promise of public safety. This system is an apparatus of control. The name "Flock" makes it clear how the company and its customers view the American people. VTPDs own policy on these cameras is irrelevant, as the cameras are made available to all customers nationwide and VTPD cannot govern their actions.
At a university level, the cameras are leased to the VTPD (For $3,200 per camera per year, totaling to over $50,000 per year), not owned. The data is held on Flock servers, not by VTPD. Because of this, these cameras violate Virginia Tech's data management policy and pose as a security risk for our campus. Any agency nationwide could download the footage and store it indefinitely, run facial recognition software, and catalogue you into a digital fingerprint. Flocks software can integrate with Bluetooth sniffers like Leonardo SignalTrace to create a comprehensive digital fingerprint to identity you by your devices within proximity, even out of your vehicle with no cameras. These cameras are remarkably unsecure, with numerous high-risk security vulnerabilities posted on the NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) known bugs database.
DeflockVT has ensured that VTPD and Chief Babb are aware of all of these issues and concerns, and the VTPD has chosen to do nothing.
Unless you wish to continue to pay for a warrantless AI surveillance state with your tax dollars and tuition, sign our petition to DeflockVT!
"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety" -Benjamin Franklin
Follow us @DeflockVT on Instagram for information or if you wish to join
701
The Issue
Virginia Tech Police Department operates an array of Flock Safety cameras on Virginia Tech campus. These AI-powered mass surveillance cameras do much more than track license plates. They create a pattern of your movements everywhere you go and combine with over 135,000 other cameras nationwide to create a searchable database accessible to ANY flock customer nationwide with NO WARRANT and no probable cause. The use of these cameras is a violation of your 4th amendment rights, and they repeatedly are abused by law enforcement to stalk ex-girlfriends, conduct ICE operations, profile your every movement, and make detainments based on AI algorithms, not to mention the high level of false positives resulting in innocent people being detained at gunpoint due to an AI algorithm misreading a plate.
These cameras create a mass surveillance infrastructure that could be so easily abused that it must be removed. Do not be fooled by the promise of public safety. This system is an apparatus of control. The name "Flock" makes it clear how the company and its customers view the American people. VTPDs own policy on these cameras is irrelevant, as the cameras are made available to all customers nationwide and VTPD cannot govern their actions.
At a university level, the cameras are leased to the VTPD (For $3,200 per camera per year, totaling to over $50,000 per year), not owned. The data is held on Flock servers, not by VTPD. Because of this, these cameras violate Virginia Tech's data management policy and pose as a security risk for our campus. Any agency nationwide could download the footage and store it indefinitely, run facial recognition software, and catalogue you into a digital fingerprint. Flocks software can integrate with Bluetooth sniffers like Leonardo SignalTrace to create a comprehensive digital fingerprint to identity you by your devices within proximity, even out of your vehicle with no cameras. These cameras are remarkably unsecure, with numerous high-risk security vulnerabilities posted on the NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) known bugs database.
DeflockVT has ensured that VTPD and Chief Babb are aware of all of these issues and concerns, and the VTPD has chosen to do nothing.
Unless you wish to continue to pay for a warrantless AI surveillance state with your tax dollars and tuition, sign our petition to DeflockVT!
"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety" -Benjamin Franklin
Follow us @DeflockVT on Instagram for information or if you wish to join
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Petition created on August 24, 2026