I checked, and Texas police only have a duty of care in narrow situations: if someone requires emergency medical care, they must call an ambulance; if they are driving an emergency vehicle, they must do so safely.
That’s about it. There’s no “general duty of care” obligation.
Maybe they’re just using scary sounding language, or maybe this narrow clause is being interpreted to grant the police much larger powers.
But “duty of care” is usually intended to hold someone accountable.
“A policeman's job is only easy in a police state.” — Touch of Evil (1958), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfgNNfnNAa8
You mean most criminals who get caught?
They also find and accuse people of crimes they didn’t commit without using Flock.
They also use Flock to skip accusing people who they might have suspected if it weren’t for Flock evidence that exonerates them.
It seems like any meaningful analysis needs to consider the rates of all four combinations of {true|false} {accusations|exonerations}, and compare that matrix to the matrix for the status quo techniques.
There are ways of lowering crime that don't require police militarization, some of which are covered in https://youtu.be/YJTPGu2E4qk.
It may be a 'low income tax area', with more regressive taxes used to fund the state and an equal or higher total? Texans need to pay for the same things, generally, as people in Massachusetts (though maybe they don't invest as much in schools, health care, etc.).
Is it the right thing to do? ehhh....
That said Texas isn't that low tax overall compared to a lot of other states. They have pretty oppressive property taxes.
https://ips-dc.org/report-state-of-insecurity-cost-militariz...
enough is enough, it is beyond ridiculous, imagine how much food, clothing, shelter and healthcare that could have bought instead
However, I suspect a family of four could start to understand $300k of cash they (and everyone they know) couldn’t have because the money was used for such purposes...
Even over 20 years, that’s like a nice new car every other year…
Sure, taxation isn’t uniform but this is an enormous amount of money!
> Naturally, it wasn’t just $4.5 million for four 2026 Chevy Tahoes, though the SUVs themselves were still bizarrely expensive at $150,000 a piece. Here’s how the purchase order breaks down:
- FalcoNet Core System (x4): $2,850,000
- Unlicensed FalcoNet core system: $200,000
- Delta 5G Perpetual license for FalcoNet V (x4): $280,000
- 2026 Chevrolet Tahoe (x4): $600,000
- FalcoNet Backpack core V2 – 6 x BTS (2G/3G/4G/5G): $355,500
- Flexable [sic] antenna kit: $27,000
- Cognyte PA Ranger: $105,000
- Unlicensed FalcoNet Backpack core V2 – 6 x BTS (2G/3G/4G/5G): $70,000
- Total PO Amount: $4,487,500
Was three not enough for the current demand for military grade surveillance by the police?
Why is there so much demand for military grade surveillance? Is there a better way to address that core need?
A million bucks buys a lot of essential services.
Because there's just not enough room in the budget for things like community engagement, rehabilitation programs, and similar things, so we have to spend millions on military surveillance gear to compensate for the absence of community engagement, rehabilitation programs, and similar things. Isn't it obvious?
Here is the foundational line:
> "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."
It clearly says: The right of the people to to be secure in their persons and effects against unreasonable searches shall not be violated.
The design of these systems is the opposite of that: they're intended to intercept everything within their reach. The fact that with only four devices, their reach isn't (yet) so great has no bearing.
Each fancy radio can only be in one place at one time, and presumably with a human operator in the vehicle or wearing the backpack. Which emulates a cell station, not all tens of thousands of them in the state simultaneously.
That feels much more like “DUI checkpoint checking all cars on this road at this time,” or “canvassing the neighborhood around the crime,” or “the stadium operator invited the cops into the security office to watch their CCTV feeds during the big game.” Precipitated on some reason—maybe not the specific human, but something that’s different about that place and time that warrants a human targeting their attention there.
As opposed to the network-level, “all communications between all people all the time just in case” that constituted the “mass” surveillance that Snowden described (and Flock has since innovated and extended to the physical world).
5G mid-band (let's go with the charitable option) has an effective range of up to 2miles.
So no big deal, just all 5G communications within up to a 12sq mi circle surrounding the vehicle.
Don't think that's exactly "targeted".
Legally, there's a debate to be had.
A telescope on a hill that can see everything within a 12sq mi circle Vs a "google maps" type 360 panorama lens on the same hill.
Live only versus 24/7 recording, filtered (only pointed at one house of interest / only logging specific devices / only logging a network of devices that interact with devices of interest)
The question re: "targeted" goes to whether it's opened ended recording of everything, or filtered and targeted sifting out of warranted subjects.
Considering the amount of time and the number of expensive management staff involved in them I’ve seen some budgeting knife fights burn up, I see the logic.