How a Microphone System Almost Sent an Innocent Man to Prison #Surveillance #CompanyWatch
The short version: Creator Mading Thok shows how SoundThinking's gunshot-detection mics nearly helped convict an innocent man, a cautionary tale for every unaccountable surveillance system, including ALPRs.
Our Take
Mading Thok's video lays out an uncomfortable truth: audio surveillance sold as objective, algorithmic 'public safety' can end up manufacturing the exact injustice it claims to prevent. A man nearly went to prison on the strength of a gunshot-detection system before the company behind it quietly admitted its own alert helped get him out. That's not a bug, it's the predictable result of letting a for-profit, Nasdaq-listed vendor control the evidentiary pipeline in criminal cases, with cities like Chicago paying out settlements and Cambridge voting the tech out entirely.
We cover license plate readers, not microphones, but the pattern is identical. Flock and SoundThinking both sell local governments a black box, both market near-perfect accuracy, and both leave defendants and the public fighting to even see how the system reached its conclusion. When the vendor is also the one deciding what counts as a 'miss' or a 'tip to prosecutors,' there's no real oversight, just a company grading its own homework.
If this story makes you wonder what's quietly listening or watching in your own city, check our map to see what's already deployed near you, and visit our take-action page for tools to push back before a black box writes the next false narrative about someone in your community. Credit to Mading Thok for surfacing a case that deserves far more attention than it's gotten.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of Mading Thok, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.