Flock is Secretly Building a Powerful New Prompt-Based AI Tool for Police
Slashdot reader fjo3 shared this article from Wired: [Flock] 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... Because the system also reaches police case…
The artificial intelligence startup Flock has developed a groundbreaking system that enables police to identify drivers and track vehicles through their movement patterns, despite claiming for years that its technology could not recognize, identify, or track individuals. This new tool integrates with police case files, 911 dispatch logs, and commercial identity records, allowing it to convert license plates into names, home addresses, and relatives.
By using a map drawn by police, the system can search for individuals based solely on their physical description. Flock's AI possesses 45 tools, granting access to a range of data sources, including plate scans, camera metadata, arrest records, case files, dispatch logs, ballistics results, and commercial databases containing sensitive information such as Social Security numbers, dates of birth, phone numbers, email addresses, and family connections.
Flock is currently testing the product with a select group of law enforcement partners, while acknowledging that the capabilities may change before the final product is released. The company is under increasing political scrutiny, facing allegations of officers abusing its platform, and experiencing vandalism that has resulted in cameras being damaged or obscured in various cities across the country.
The AI system requires only a location, a time period, and a behavioral pattern to identify individuals. Users can input a prompt, such as "Find me witnesses based on vehicles most seen in [neighborhood] during [last 14 days] during [daily timeframe] (will not include whitelisted vehicles)," and the system will return a list of license plates.
These plates are then converted into names and home addresses by other tools within the product. Another prompt instructs the system to list individuals arrested more than twice in the past two years, excluding only narcotics arrests, and then maps their residences, retrieves calls for service at their homes, and generates a detailed dossier on the top three individuals.
The term "workup" refers to a comprehensive background check initiated by supplying a name and date of birth, which yields information about vehicles, prior suspect listings, relatives, phone numbers, and online accounts.
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