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Tuesday, August 25, 2026

Flock's surveillance cameras have already sparked outrage. WIRED reconstructed its next-generation AI system, already in use by some police, to confirm it goes much further than tracking license plates.

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SCOOP: Flock left at least 60 of its AI-powered, people-tracking surveillance cameras exposed and livestreaming to the open internet. We tracked ourselves. The exposure highlights the power of these cameras and types of things they're tracking. Not just cars. www.404media.co/flock-expose ...

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-- Jason Koebler (@jasonkoebler.bsky.social) 11:07 AM · Dec 22, 2025

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More from the article ...

... Vehicle surveillance giant Flock Safety has told the public for years that its technology "cannot recognize, identify, or track individuals." It has now built a system that does both, an artificial intelligence tool for police that can identify drivers and track vehicles by their patterns of movement alone, WIRED has learned.

Drawing on a network of cameras that logs the movements of drivers in more than 6,000 communities, the tool can pick out potential witnesses by how often their cars pass through a neighborhood, or surface a driver's "associates" from the cameras they pass together.

Because the system also reaches police case files, 911 dispatch logs, and commercial identity records, those plates can be turned into names, home addresses, and relatives.

It can search for people in an area drawn on a map based on nothing more than a physical description. ...

The suggested prompts sit in a cache of more than 450 files that WIRED found on Flock's own website, served by its login pages to anyone who loaded them. The code describes 45 tools at the AI's disposal, giving it access to plate scans and camera metadata, arrest records, case files, dispatch logs, ballistics results, and commercial databases that contain Social Security numbers, dates of birth, phone numbers, email addresses, relatives and associates.

Flock says it is testing the product with a small group of law enforcement partners and describes it as still in development, with capabilities that may not reflect what it eventually sells. ...


#1 | Posted by LampLighter at 2026-08-23 01:51 PM | Reply

Thanks John Roberts.

#2 | Posted by fresno500 at 2026-08-24 05:24 AM | Reply

From the last paragraphs of the article ...

... At the same time, the company is also hiring engineers to "drive the architectural evolution" of its new system, wire it into Flock's larger data platform, and build a framework it says will act on behalf of investigators, according to two recent job postings. The role covers multistep AI workflows and new capabilities, including automated lead generation and cross-camera correlation"uses well beyond the version of the software WIRED examined.

"It is clear Flock has aspirations far beyond ALPRs to become a digital platform for policing," Ferguson says. "We are on the cusp of the age of agentic policing and the ability to create natural language chatbots to search within massive datasets will soon become the norm." ...

[emphasis mine]


#3 | Posted by LampLighter at 2026-08-25 09:53 PM | Reply

What a treat.

#4 | Posted by redlightrobot at 2026-08-25 10:32 PM | Reply

How soon might it be before Pres Trump's apparent private militia, a.k.a. ICE, has access to the daily, minute-by-minute, movements of Americans provided by Flock cameras?


#5 | Posted by LampLighter at 2026-08-25 10:38 PM | Reply

Then there's things like this ...

Newtown joins list of CT towns pausing Flock cameras amid privacy concerns
www.newstimes.com

... As municipalities across Connecticut, and the country, have begun to temporarily stop the use of Flock cameras amid controversies surrounding the public's privacy, Newtown officials have joined the long, growing list. ...


#6 | Posted by LampLighter at 2026-08-25 10:40 PM | Reply

Note, that in my view of Flock, the more widespread its cameras are deployed the more it has to offer to those who sign up for its monitoring ~service.~

But now I see Newtown, CT bowing out.

That's significant, imo.


#7 | Posted by LampLighter at 2026-08-25 10:43 PM | Reply


How soon might it be before Pres Trump's apparent private militia, a.k.a. ICE, has access to the daily, minute-by-minute, movements of Americans provided by Flock cameras?

Probably immediately, when BidenBorderBonanza concluded 9Million people crossed without authority.

Now maybe 99% are good souls but that 1% are killing, maiming and raping citizens.

Feels like those that voted for the Bonanza voted for this too. Thanks for that.

#8 | Posted by oneironaut at 2026-08-25 10:54 PM | Reply


@8 ... Biden? ...

Do try harder.

You are embarrassing your current trolling alias ...

                          :)


#9 | Posted by LampLighter at 2026-08-25 11:01 PM | Reply

Another Connecticut town puts Flock license plate cameras on hold amid privacy concerns
www.newstimes.com

... Police have suspended the installation of Flock license plate reader cameras in town in light of questions raised by residents and people across the state about the technology.

In a release on Tuesday, the Bethel Police Department said the town has a contract with Flock for the placement of license plate reading cameras, but their installation is on hold until further notice. There are currently no Flock cameras installed in Bethel.

"No data has been collected by any Flock system, and no Flock data has been shared with any agency at any level of government," officials said.

Police said the decision was made "in light of questions raised locally and across the state" about automated license plate reader technology. It comes just days after police in Milford paused the installation of additional Flock cameras after public backlash, and a month after the towns of Windsor and Killingworth took their cameras down. ...


#10 | Posted by LampLighter at 2026-08-26 02:00 AM | Reply

@#10 ... "No data has been collected by any Flock system, and no Flock data has been shared with any agency at any level of government," officials said. ...

Interesting wording there.

#11 | Posted by LampLighter at 2026-08-26 02:43 AM | Reply

Interesting wording there.

Good to hear that they didn't share the data that they didn't collect.

#12 | Posted by REDIAL at 2026-08-26 02:48 AM | Reply

Switchfoot - Meant To Live (2003)
www.youtube.com

Lyrics excerpt ...

genius.com

...
We were meant to live for so much more
Have we lost ourselves?
Somewhere we live inside
Somewhere we live inside

We were meant to live for so much more
Have we lost ourselves?
Somewhere we live inside
...


#13 | Posted by LampLighter at 2026-08-26 02:49 AM | Reply

@#12 ... Good to hear that they didn't share the data that they didn't collect. ...

Yup.

But that is what was said.

And that statement seems to be an indication of how the pubic perceives Flock monitoring.

#14 | Posted by LampLighter at 2026-08-26 02:52 AM | Reply

@#12

And, fwiw, looking at deflock.org, it looks like there are no Flock installations in the town of Bethel, CT.

#15 | Posted by LampLighter at 2026-08-26 02:55 AM | Reply

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