Flock’s OS Investigate Expands Police Surveillance

OS Investigate turns a vehicle-monitoring network into a behavior-search engine, making the gap between “tracking cars” and tracking people largely semantic.

• –Uses 69 prewritten prompts and 45 tools to query plate scans, case files, dispatch logs, arrest records, ballistics data, and identity databases
• –Can surface witnesses, associates, and vehicles based on movement patterns without starting from a known plate or suspect
• –Extends surveillance across Flock’s network of more than 6,000 communities
• –Raises serious due-process and privacy risks because natural-language searches can generate investigative leads from broad or subjective descriptions
• –Flock’s audit logs and access controls may help, but safeguards are difficult to evaluate while the system remains proprietary and in development