Panopticon
One of two Flock automated license plate readers located at the Glendale Ave entrance of the University of Toledo Hospital complex. 41.61326, -83.61783
A Flock ALPR records traffic on Anthony Wayne Trail in Toledo. According to the Toledo Blade, between 20,000 to 30,000 cars travel along this stretch of the Trail. 41.58268, -83.62115
Detail of Flock ALPR located at the Glendale Ave entrance of the University of Toledo Hospital complex. 41.61326, -83.61783
Unlike the Flock cameras located at the Glendale Entrance of the U of T complex, this ALPR is located in a prairie-like part of campus that receives very little public traffic. 41.61853, -83.60981
This Flock ALPR on Sylvania Road is operated by the Toledo Police Department. It is located 1000 feet from a clinic that provides abortions. 41.69249, -83.57325
Flock Safety is a tech startup founded in 2017. It makes a specific kind of surveillance camera called an Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR).
Flock ALPRs photograph license plates and other features that identify a particular vehicle. This data is stored and analyzed with artificial intelligence. This analysis allows police and private organizations to track where a vehicle is in real time. Flock customers are also able to track everywhere a vehicle has traveled within the Flock camera network. Flock Safety claims ALPRs deter and solve crimes. Privacy advocates argue AI-enabled surveillance cameras violate the Constitutional right to privacy.
The panopticon is a prison design developed in the 18th century by English philosopher and social theorist Jeremy Bentham. In a panopticon, a centrally-located observer is granted a 360-degree view of the surveilled.
The series Panopticon subverts this dynamic.
To create an image for Panopticon, I aim my camera at a Flock camera. With my camera in multiple exposure mode, I move along a 360 degree circumference. In 45-degree increments, I record an image of the surveillance device. When the final image of the device is taken, my camera combines all images into one file.
This final image simultaneously shows the surveillance device from every significant angle. We see everything about these Flock cameras in the same way the Flock corporation would like to see everything about us. Every drive to a political rally. Every coffee date. Medical appointment. Abortion clinic visit.
This is how the ACLU describes the Flock ALPR network:
“Imagine that a police officer stood on your street writing detailed notes about you every time you drove or walked by them. […] Now imagine that there is an army of police officers doing this on every block.'“
For more about the tension between privacy and safety, see my Substack article The Mass Surveillance Dilemma.