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Surveillance Tech Firms Are Writing Press Releases For Cops. Worse, Information Companies Are Publishing Them.

Surveillance Tech Firms Are Writing Press Releases For Cops. Worse, Information Companies Are Publishing Them.

2023-11-18 11:48:21

from the you-both-serve-the-public.-try-that-out-sometime. dept

There’s nothing new about cop retailers letting their tech suppliers write their press releases for them. Legislation enforcement officers love energy however usually assume nothing of surrendering their autonomy to the suppliers of the snooping instruments.

For years, Harris Company — the maker of Stingray gadgets — informed cops what they may or couldn’t say about their use of the tech, tying them up (usually with the help of the FBI) with non-disclosure agreements. Ring — the largest title in front-door surveillance — has given cops cameras handy out in alternate for increasing its buyer base and allowing Ring to man the PR front.

And there’s nothing new about so-called journalists acting as stenographers for cops. When one thing occurs that means police misconduct, some journalists do nothing more than publish PD press releases and/or search remark solely from legislation enforcement PR reps or (vomits in mouth) police union representatives.

Maybe its these years of underservice that has led to press retailers publishing full-page advertisements for tech suppliers, apparently with out feeling they could be crossing moral traces. That’s what’s being referred to as out by the EFF in its publish titled “The Rise of the Police-Advertiser.” Who precisely is being served when “journalists” add a few sentences to call model heavy posts that unabashedly have a good time the merchandise and the cops that declare these tech marvels just about pay for themselves?

In August, the Tulsa police division held a press conference about how its new Automated License Plate Readers (ALPRs), a controversial piece of surveillance know-how, was the policing equal of “turning the lights on” for the primary time. In Ontario, California, town put out a press release about how its ALPRs had been a “very important useful resource.” In Madison, South Dakota, local news coated how town’s expenditure of $30,000 for ALPRs “paid off” twice in two days.  

Let’s go to the native piece (he stated, residing in South Dakota). Right here’s an eagle-eye view of this so-called reporting, with the title model of the tech central to piece highlighted:

Does that appear to be journalism to you? Flock flock flock flock flock flock flock. Six instances, together with the headline. That is an commercial for Flock, printed at no cost by KSFY and distributed by different native information sources who needed to do nothing however credit score KSFY for its authentic “reporting.” That’s six mentions of Flock and a few statements from a PD official who noticed the plate readers hit twice and by some means determined this was newsworthy sufficient he ought to name the native station.

Or possibly Madison Police Chief Justin Meyer didn’t even have to put a name. Possibly all he wanted to do was insert a number of phrases into Flock’s PR boilerplate and electronic mail it to the closest information companies. That’s what Flock does: it writes many of the phrases and instructs cops to fill within the blanks.

Flock Security has distributed a Public Information Officer Toolkit, offering “sources and templates for public data officers.” A Flock draft press launch states:

The ___ Police Division has solved [CRIME] with the assistance of their Flock Security digicam system. Flock Security ALPR cameras assist legislation enforcement examine crime by offering goal proof. [CRIME DETAILS AND STORY] ____ Police put in Flock cameras on [DATE] to unravel and cut back crime in [CITY].

This Mad Libs of a press launch is an commercial, and one Flock hopes your police departments will distribute in order that they will promote extra ALPRs.

I can solely hope some information outlet lets one in all these hit the entrance web page of their web site with half-completed boilerplate. In the end, somebody from the cop PR division goes to ship out an electronic mail blast that trumpets the success of [INSERT TECH PROVIDER] in fixing [CRIME DETAILS AND STORY].

See Also

Flock isn’t alone. Along with the beforehand talked about Harris and Ring, ShotSpotter has its personal PR wing that just about composes press releases for cops and pushes them to turn into unpaid model ambassadors for a model so controversial it not too long ago rebranded as “SoundThinking.”

A 2021 yearly report to the SEC filed by ShotSpotter, an acoustic gunshot detection firm, stories that their advertising and marketing workforce “leveraged our extraordinarily happy and constant buyer base to create a big set of recent ‘success tales’ that present proof of worth to prospects…. Within the space of public relations, we work intently with lots of our clients to assist them talk the success of ShotSpotter to their native media and communities.”

That is ugly stuff. Not solely does it harm the trustworthiness of journalistic retailers, it makes cops seem like nothing greater than pushers of tech firm propaganda. None of this seems natural. And that’s as a result of none of it’s.

In each instances, the general public is being screwed by entities they’d relatively belief. The unhappy factor is neither of those entities seem to care they’re harming their relationship with the individuals they serve. Understaffed information desks are very happy to easily republish rubbish like this as a result of it frees them as much as deal with stuff they really care about. And cops are solely too blissful to do that as a result of it means their tech provider can be happy with their obeisance and probably bathe them with freebies or preferential pricing.

Filed Underneath: alpr, madison police department, police, press releases, privacy, surveillance

Firms: flock safety, harris corp., shotspotter, soundthinking

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