Suffolk County has unexpectedly delayed the replacement of its current gunshot detection system with a more controversial and potentially invasive version from Flock Safety.
The unexplained setback, revealed Wednesday during a county planning committee meeting, comes after multiple instances of vigilante vandalism in Suffolk against Flock Safety’s controversial camera system, as residents continue to show up and share their protests of the tech in local Town Hall meetings.
Officials instead renewed its contract with SoundThinking, the company behind the current ShotSpotter system, which Suffolk police have been using for the last decade, for another year for $1.2 million.
“To ensure continuous public safety and avoid a lapse in coverage, the department sought to amend its contract with SoundThinking due to unforeseen circumstances surrounding the acquisition and implementation of a new system,” representatives from the Suffolk County Police Department told The Post.
“Extending services with SoundThinking will prevent any operational disruption and ensure the department can continue to meet its public safety needs,” they said.
Last month, the county quietly inked a nearly $4 million deal with Flock Safety to roll out its new listening devices, dubbed the “Raven” system, which flag gunshots, car crashes, “loud community disruptions” and more.
Currently, Suffolk’s ShotSpotter system only listens for the specific sound of gunfire, and doesn’t connect with or operate any cameras or store people’s information, officials confirmed to The Post.
Flock Safety, on the other hand, is already blanketing Long Island with over 700 highly controversial AI-powered surveillance cameras, according to DeFlock, an activist group tracking the company’s surveillance and expansion.
These cameras scan and store info on every car that drives past, including its license plate, distinct features like dents, bumper stickers and more, as well as the location data, and then stores that information about people’s movements in a database searchable by law enforcement around the country.
Once installed, Flock’s new Raven system will connect listening features to its already sprawling, searchable, and controversial AI-camera surveillance network across Long Island, critics warned.
Flock safety is adamant that “the [Raven] system does not listen for conversations, identify voices, understand speech, transcribe what people say, or allow anyone to search for spoken words.”
But the company did, however, at the same time admit the tech does hear and pick up speech.
“In the rare instance that a qualifying event, such as a gunshot or vehicle crash, occurs while someone is speaking nearby, the short clip may include a few incidental words spoken in a public space immediately before or after the triggering sound at such a volume that it is incidentally captured,” Flock Safety said.
Despite the controversy surrounding the cameras, Suffolk officials not only plan to push forward with the deal, but another county deal with Flock Safety for cameras may be on the table, according to Jed Painter, general counsel of the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office, who led the contract negotiations.
Flock’s surveillance system, which has quietly become law enforcement’s go-to surveillance tool around the country, has also become a major source of controversy — prompting nationwide protests, the birth of anti-Flock activist organizations, and instances of vigilante vandalism, including multiple on Long Island.
A slew of bills have also been introduced to regulate the technology, including new legislation by Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican, that would strip federal funding from any local governments or police departments that contract with Flock to deploy the security cameras.
Both Nassau and Suffolk Counties, along with multiple local towns, cities, and villages within them who also have deals with Flock Safety, would lose federal funding under Massie’s bill if passed.
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