NORTHAMPTON COUNTY, Va. — A Northampton County resident sent the Mirror a photo of some sort of surveillance system located on a telephone pole on Seaside Rd near Simpkins Drive. The Mirror was told that the county has implemented the Flock surveillance system to enhance public safety and aid in crime reduction, according to Sheriff David Doughty. The system, which uses a network of 25 cameras across Northampton and Accomack counties, provides law enforcement with actionable evidence to solve, deter, and reduce crime.
Doughty told The Mirror that while the system is effective in crime detection, strict policies govern its use. “We must be investigating a crime to access the footage,” he said, noting that law enforcement must have a specific incident or crime number before proceeding with footage review.
The Flock system captures still images, including license plates, and stores them for up to 30 days. In addition to aiding in criminal investigations, the system has helped recover lost dogs and contributed to solving shooting incidents.
Sheriff Doughty emphasized that the system is designed to strike a balance between crime-fighting efforts and protecting citizens’ privacy rights.
“It’s like having an additional officer on the job all of the time,” Sheriff Doughty said. “It’s a very helpful tool, however, we are keenly aware of the privacy issues. We only access it when we need information on something that has been reported in the area.”
“We are keenly aware of the privacy issues. We only access it when we need information on something that has been reported in the area.”
Said every budding totalitarian.
It would be good to know who defines what “something”is. A lost dog? A speeding car? A Trump sign?
There’s at least a couple cameras like these in exmore. But I’d be more concerned about those cameras in Cape Charles at the beach front pervertedly spying on locals. Oh and the one over to the industrial park at say “skirt level” to keep bicyclists and skaters off the path.
You sound like the creeper.
You can rest assured that it has been already been used, perversely. I was at a Coast Guard station that was using very nice binoculars, at night, to watch the neighbors. Even the Senior Chief stopped in numerous times after 10pm to have a look for himself. Some humans ain’t human.
Why was crime allowed to get this far out of control that cameras are needed to:
‘ provides law enforcement with actionable evidence to solve, deter, and reduce crime.’ ???
What have they allowed it to become…Little Baltimore?
If only it were true. The distrust for law enforcement is epidemic. This is guaranteed to be abused. Our trust is severely eroded.
Police do not police themselves. No transparency, no accountability, no credibility has become the norm. To talk with an officer is a dangerous thing these days. To complain is a high risk personal venture.
Time after time the same bad officers are permitted to carry on as is or just work next door. Beat up someone with excessive force and you might get desk duty for 5 days with full pay. Policing attracts bullies and thugs, and violent people, along with people that really want to serve and protect. Fire bugs like to join fire companies. The police don’t do a good job to keep the wrong people out. The recidivism of some officers doing bad things is outrageous to the public when it is uncovered. Nothing changes and it just gets seemingly worse.
The police should absolutely not be in charge of investigating and disciplining themselves. A better method to standardize law enforcement accountability needs to be put in place.
These camera systems will end up being abused. The usage limitations are only as good as the people running them and the bad actors are always present, always bad actors, and don’t really care because no real discipline is ever applied. Unfortunate but reality today.
Another small slice of our freedom and privacy lost. After while, these things add up. Be aware.
“Victim of child sex abuse by state trooper testifies at trial – David Gregson accused State Police of negligence for employing Roger Coon, who allegedly abused multiple boys in Ballston Spa in the 1970s and 1980s.”
By Chris Hippensteel, Investigative Reporter, Albany, New York Times Union
Sep 11, 2024
ALBANY — For decades, David Gregson told few people about the years of molestation he said he had endured at the hands of a former state trooper, Roger L Coon Jr.
First, he told a psychiatrist.
Later, a few close family members.
Then, following the passage of the 2019 Child Victims Act, he decided to tell the courts.
On Tuesday, Gregson shared that story one more time, from the witness stand in a near-empty courtroom overlooking the state Capitol.
“He tore my entire life apart,” Gregson said of the long-deceased trooper, who allegedly preyed on him and a generation of boys in the Ballston Spa area during the 1970s and 1980s.
Over two days, the trial also brought to light new information about how State Police learned of Coon’s alleged abuse of boys in the Ballston Spa area, as well as the internal investigation that followed.
Coon stands accused of first molesting Gregson in 1977, after picking up the 11-year-old in his cruiser under the guise of a truant officer.
Over the next several years, Coon allegedly abused Gregson dozens of times, often in a home he kept furnished with toys — a soda fountain, a pinball machine, a rideable toy train — to entertain the children he preyed on.
During his testimony, Gregson rattled off a list of other alleged victims, children he saw at Coon’s house and who he said he knew had been abused.
Allegations of that abuse reached the State Police in 1982, according to documents filed in the case.
But the records indicate that the State Police and prosecutors with the Saratoga County District Attorney’s Office allowed Coon to quietly retire without a full criminal investigation, in part to avoid the negative publicity it would bring on the agency.
Coon pleaded guilty to charges related to additional child sexual abuse allegations just two years later and would face similar charges again in 1999.
He died in 2003.
A chance encounter
It was the summer of 1982 when then-state Trooper David Dyer walked into a hobby shop in the village of Ballston Spa.
He was off duty at the time, Dyer said in videotaped testimony for Gregson’s case that was played in the courtroom.
While there, another customer recognized Dyer as a trooper and confronted him, demanding to know what the State Police were going to do about Coon.
Dyer was confused.
He knew little about Coon, a fellow trooper who had occasionally been partnered with him on patrols.
The unnamed customer told Dyer that Coon was a serial abuser who had been using his authority to prey on children in Ballston Spa for years.
That was a serious allegation, Dyer remembered replying.
Did he have proof?
The customer said he did, furnishing Dyer with the names of multiple kids who’d allegedly been abused by Coon, information that Dyer passed along to his superior.
The State Police inquiry into Coon’s conduct allegedly began with that hobby shop encounter, ending months later with Coon’s quiet retirement from the storied law enforcement agency, and the Saratoga County district attorney’s decision not to prosecute him.
Dyer was one of several former state troopers involved in the agency’s probe of Coon’s conduct who were deposed for the case.
Another was Bill Lair, the lieutenant who had been provided with the details of the allegations against Coon by Dyer.
Lair is listed as the author of the three-page report that, in its final page, recommended the agency end its investigation of Coon — citing, among other factors, the potential for negative publicity.
Lair testified that he did not author that damning final section of the report.
Rather, he speculated the final paragraphs were “a continuation” of his initial report completed by the zone sergeant he’d assigned to conduct the investigation of Coon.
But Lair stood by the recommendation he said his zone sergeant had likely written, that it would “serve no useful purpose” for the State Police to investigate an alleged crime the district attorney’s office had declined to prosecute.
Good cops will always cover up for bad cops 99.4% of the time…I have seen it in the military as well as a police department.
So what is a ‘good cop’ ???
They would not have lasted long in the eighties. Can you guess what would have happened to them?
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2024/09/omnipresent-ai-cameras-will-ensure-good-behavior-says-larry-ellison/
I’ve noticed a similar Flock camera system off Bayside Road in Machipongo, and while I understand the county’s efforts to enhance public safety, I have some concerns about transparency and the potential misuse of these systems. The article mentions strict policies governing footage access, which is reassuring, but there’s still a need for clarity on how decisions are made about camera placement, especially in rural areas like ours.
In my area, there’s a Flock camera directed toward a private driveway that leads to an area where I believe groundwater manipulation is happening for slated developments without permits or public knowledge (Hungars Creek). What’s more concerning is that some landowners who are financially benefiting from these developments, including individuals on the Board of Supervisors, may be involved.
I personally think the camera is there to prevent locals from snooping and uncovering what’s really going on. The ‘driveway’ has new posts and is chained. If you look at any USGS map, particularly in comparison to historical ones, the wetlands that exist now are brand new, and water streams are being directed toward future land use projects.
If you head north on Bayside Road toward Exmore, there are two more cameras which are in black communities. To me, this is outright intimidation by law-enforcement.
We have a couple of these devices in our area.
No worries.
If someone breaks into my home, steals my cat or murders a neighbor the officials will be able to look at vehicles that have passed by and hopefully capture the criminals no matter what kind of car or race of the driver.
That’s a good thing in my opinion.
A very good thing.
I’m also a fan of the 4th Amendment…
Fourth Amendment Searches and Seizures
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.
‘They’ have convinced liberals and most conservatives that if you are doing nothing wrong then you should accept their constant listening, surveilling and basically minding your business instead of their own.
‘They’, for the most part, have forgotten just who pays their salaries and that they are being paid to serve us at our convenience, not theirs.
‘They’ are nothing more than servants of the public. It is time they start to serve us and our agenda not theirs. Period.