Virginia woman comes home from the park to find police-surveillance pole planted in her front yard

A Virginia woman said she came back from a short park visit to find a police Flock surveillance tower on the strip of land between her property and the street.

According to Futurism, no notice was given before it went up, and the location outside her home apparently was not one of the city-approved sites for deployment.

What happened?

Roanoke resident Kat Vaughn told WSLS 10 that a surveillance device appeared outside her home while she was away.

Police later determined that the pole was a Flock Raven audio detection sensor after an officer responded to look into it.

Vaughn said the situation was even stranger because the officer who arrived at first did not recognize the device.

"When the officer got out here, he wasn't sure what it was either," Vaughn told WSLS. "So, we went and got a tall ladder to be able to get up to take a picture of it closer."

Vaughn said that the pole had been placed in the parkway strip, the public area between the roadway and the front lawn.

WSLS reported that Roanoke City Council had authorized 75 Raven sensors citywide, but the address in front of Vaughn's house did not appear on that list of approved sites.

Vaughn also said the officer told her, "Yeah, I think you're right. It's a gun surveillance device," adding that the units "weren't supposed to be installed until July."

Why does it matter?

The Raven system is part of an expansion of police surveillance technology into residential spaces. The devices have been likened to ShotSpotter-type systems, which have faced longstanding criticism over privacy and civil-liberties issues.

What are people saying?

Vaughn said one of the most upsetting parts of the experience was the lack of communication.

"We didn't receive anything in the mail," she told WSLS. "I double checked to make sure that there was no emails or anything about it."

She said identifying the device still did not resolve the issue.

As Futurism noted, the Roanoke Police Department's response to journalists about the situation was brief: "We are working on this."

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