Flock Safety operated a fake police department to test searches on live cameras

According to audit records obtained by 404 Media, Flock Safety operated a fake police department called “Flock City PD”. Accounts named “Flock City PD - Law Enforcement Demo”, “Flock Intelligence” and “Flock Safety - Commercial Sales Demo” searched live footage from automatic license plate readers (ALPR) in several US cities during sales demonstrations. These were so-called FreeForm searches, in which an image recognition algorithm from Flock Safety determines the results.

Audit logs from Dunwoody, Georgia, and Bryan, Texas, show that these searches included queries such as “coexist bumper sticker”, “Star of David”, “vehicle a pretty girl would drive”, “white truck with a trump sticker”, “religious cars” or “don't tread on me flag”, as well as “crowd”, “person wearing a mask” and “man holding rifle”. According to the records, the moderation tools used by the company blocked some of these searches or displayed a warning window for them, but many sensitive queries — including “crowd”, “person wearing scrubs” or “large group with signs” — went through without restrictions.

Flock Safety told 404 Media that these were tests and validation of safeguards for FreeForm searches and demonstrations to police of the queries they should not run, rather than actual investigative searches by a customer. According to the company, the “Flock City PD” account no longer searches any real cameras, and the demonstration environment is now isolated. The report follows earlier findings by 404 Media from April, according to which employees of Flock Safety accessed live cameras in Dunwoody during sales demonstrations at locations such as a children's gym, a playground, a school, a swimming pool or a Jewish community center.