Flock Safety launched the AI tool OS Investigate to track drivers based on driving patterns

Flock Safety, which operates a network of automatic license plate recognition (ALPR) cameras in more than 6000 US communities, has developed an AI tool for police called OS Investigate (previously known internally as Nightshift) that, according to an investigation by Wired, can identify drivers and track vehicles based on movement patterns – without knowing the license plate, name or vehicle description. The tool can, for example, identify potential witnesses based on how often their car passes through a particular neighborhood, or uncover “associates” based on cameras that recorded cars passing together. Because the system also links police files, 911 call records and commercial identity databases, it can turn license plates into names, addresses and relatives, or search for people by physical description within an area marked on a map.

The tool includes 69 preset queries (prompts) that police officers can select, modify and submit, or they can write their own. Wired found these files – more than 450 configuration templates – publicly available on the website of Flock. According to the findings, the AI has access to 45 tools covering license plate scans, camera metadata, arrest records, ballistics results and commercial databases containing Social Security numbers, dates of birth, phone numbers and email addresses. Nineteen of the 69 prompts focus on finding behavioral patterns rather than a specific record, and fourteen of them require neither a license plate, a name nor a description – a location, time window and type of behavior are enough, such as vehicles that visited three or more stores in three days or multiple gas stations between midnight and five in the morning. The “workup” function also uses a name and date of birth to compile an overview of a person's vehicles, relatives, phone numbers and online accounts in a single command.

According to Wired, Flock did not respond to questions about the ranking of features and did not dispute the capabilities described in the article. Spokesperson Paris Lewbel said in a statement that OS Investigate is a standalone product distinct from license plate recognition technology, designed to connect information that police agencies already have access to, and that the final version of the tool may change significantly before a broader market launch. The company has long publicly claimed that its technology “cannot recognize, identify or track individuals” and that it is not used to track people. According to privacy and legal experts contacted by Wired, these assurances are difficult to reconcile with what they found in the code of the tool, and the deployment comes at a time of growing political pressure, documented cases of misuse by police officers and a wave of camera vandalism across US cities.

You can find details in the source article.