Flock Safety's crime-fighting claims questionable amid flat or rising crime rates
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Flock Safety, a $4B surveillance startup, claimed its cameras caused big crime drops in some cities, but analysis shows crime has stayed flat or gone up in those areas.
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Flock has routinely cherry-picked and oversimplified crime data to make misleading marketing claims about its cameras' effectiveness.
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Multiple criminologists criticized a Flock-funded study claiming its tech helps solve 10% of reported US crime as lacking evidence and unlikely to withstand scrutiny.
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Some police praise Flock cameras as helping to identify suspects faster, but officer in Lexington said he didn't expect a "demonstrable impact on crime rates."
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Cities have committed hundreds of thousands in public funds for Flock cameras based on questionable efficacy claims, concerning critics who say estimating causal impacts on crime is extremely difficult.