The facts
New Bedford's Flock cameras have been shut off since Aug. 11. The shutdown came at the recommendation of Police Chief Jason Thody, who ordered the department's Flock system suspended during an investigative audit. That audit ended with Thody recommending that two officers be fired.
On Sept. 3, Thody announced he was recommending the firing of Officer Emily Pacheco and Sgt. James Marinelli after separate investigations sustained multiple department-policy violations involving their use of Flock for personal purposes. Pacheco had been placed on administrative leave after she was served with an emergency protective order on behalf of a former girlfriend she had allegedly been tracking via Flock. The order was extended to six months after a hearing in New Bedford District Court.
The City Council is now deciding whether the cameras ever come back. On Sept. 24 it voted to swap a seven-page regulatory ordinance for a simpler two-page one, drafted by Councilor Shane Burgo, that would prohibit New Bedford's city government from acquiring, operating or renewing contracts for automated license plate readers or other mass location-tracking technologies, and bar spending city funds on them. It needs one more vote in full session to pass. The city's contract with Flock expires Nov. 12.
Mitchell, speaking for the administration, said a permanent ban "would make our city less safe," Thody said he supports council oversight but recommended a 90-day compliance period instead of immediate termination, warning that killing the system could interrupt active cases and expose the city to contract damages. Councilor Brian Gomes voted against the substitute ordinance, saying eliminating the tool would "handcuff" police.
Our take
Let’s get one thing straight: you give a bunch of badge-wearing dickheads a citywide surveillance network, and the first thing one of these paranoid pricks does is use it to digitally stalk her fucking ex-girlfriend. That’s not a bug in the system, that’s the whole goddamn point of giving cops unchecked power. New Bedford bought this Flock shit to play Minority Report, and Officer Emily Pacheco immediately turned it into her personal jealous-psycho tracking service. What a surprise - the tool sold as essential for ‘public safety’ is actually essential for abusive, petty bullshit. Fucking shocker. Now the cameras have been dark since August, because even the police chief had to admit his department can’t be trusted with a toy this dangerous without using it to commit felonies against their former partners. The absolute state of these clowns. And now the city council is actually considering doing the one sane thing and banning this creepy tech for good. Of course, the administration is whining that a ban ‘would make our city less safe.’ No, you incompetent fucks, it would make the city less surveilled. There’s a difference. The only ‘safety’ at risk here is the safety of cops who want to spy on people without a warrant. Chief Thody, after recommending the stalker cop be fired, is now clutching his pearls about ‘contract damages’ and ‘interrupting active cases.’ Oh, boo-fucking-hoo. Maybe you should have thought about your ‘active cases’ before your officers used the gear to run their own personal stalking operations. Councilor Brian Gomes says banning the cameras would ‘handcuff’ the police. Yeah, and maybe that’s exactly what needs to happen to a department that treats a mass surveillance system like a fucking Tinder sidebar. These entitled bastards had one job: don’t use the city’s spy grid to terrorize civilians. They couldn’t manage it. The contract expires in November. Here’s hoping the council tells Flock and its enablers in blue to go fuck themselves permanently. The only thing this technology has proven essential for is proving cops cannot be trusted with a goddamn thing. Shut it all down and let these power-hungry assholes solve crimes the old-fashioned way: by maybe, I don’t know, not being stalking pieces of shit for five minutes.
