Flock Safety is a multi-billion dollar startup that is gaining attention from all over the world. As of Wednesday, the company's new Solar Condor cameras make installation much easier, as these eyes run on solar power and use wireless 5G networks.
Adding solar power to this means the company's mission to cover the country with cameras becomes much easier. The company says its Condor camera systems are equipped with “advanced AI and ML that constantly learns with cutting-edge video analytics” to adapt to changing needs, and that “with solar power, Condor You can put cameras anywhere.”
But the company has drawn resistance and scrutiny from some privacy advocacy groups, including the ACLU.
“The company has focused on selling automatic license plate recognition (ALPR) cameras,” the ACLU said in a 2022 report, arguing that it is not ethical to use network tracking to track vehicles while they are on the move. pointed out that there was a problem. The ACLU recommended that communities reject Flock Safety products. Last year, it published a guide on how to use its products to slow mass surveillance.
Flock Safety is a very well-funded startup. PitchBook reports that the company has raised more than $680 million to date at a valuation of nearly $5 billion, including funding from a16z's American Dynamism Fund. The fund has invested in a number of law and order products, including police drones. These include responding to corporate legal subpoenas, autonomous flood defense drones, and 911 call response systems.
It also claims to be effective in helping law enforcement track down criminals, with the company saying 10% of reported crimes in the U.S. are solved using its technology.
The problem is that Flock Safety doesn't have the best track record when it comes to accuracy. In New Mexico, police mistakenly treated some drivers as violent crime suspects and held them at gunpoint after the company's cameras misread their license plates, KOAT Action News reported. The company was also reportedly sued after an Ohio man was allegedly wrongly identified as a human trafficking suspect. And the company has generally come under intense scrutiny for privacy risks in its nationally shared database.
Give them the pole and they'll give you the camera. Image credit: Flock Safety
A report from UMich's Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program concluded that “even when ALPR works as intended, the vast majority of images taken are unrelated to criminal activity,” and here: There's a problem. That comes with some privacy challenges.
“Tens of thousands” of cameras
It stands to reason that if you cover the whole country with cameras, individual cars will be spotted more often. About a decade ago, the Supreme Court ruled that using GPS trackers to follow cars for more than 28 days violates the Fourth Amendment's rules against unreasonable searches and seizures.
At this point it becomes a philosophical question. How many license plate recognition data points will be needed before an array of networked cameras can track vehicles with GPS-like resolution? I put that question to Bailey Quintrell, chief strategy officer at Flock Safety.
“GPS trackers basically tell you where you are in real time, depending on how you set them up,” Quintrell said in an interview with TechCrunch after confirming that the company has “tens of thousands” of cameras. , about every second.” Surgery. “Our cameras are installed in public view, where they can be clearly seen. Perhaps that sounds like a lot. But on a national scale, there are actually not that many. there is no.”
While this may be true at a national level, density may be much higher in some communities. In Oakland, California, where I live, Governor Newsom recently announced plans to blanket the city with cameras.
“With the installation of this network of 480 high-tech cameras, we are giving law enforcement the tools they need to effectively combat criminal activity and hold perpetrators accountable,” Newsom said in March of this year. said in a statement.
Still, Quintrell argues that even high-density camera coverage is a big problem.
“So this is a very different level of information than, say, a GPS tracker,” Quintores said, adding that perhaps cameras could rival GPS if the density were high enough. refuted my suggestion. “The point is [where we know where everyone is at all times] It's quite far. There are long road distances, many intersections, lots of parking, and lots of driveways. I don't know the number, but it's much more than the number of cameras we sold. ”
That's probably true, but the company boasts that it's “trusted by more than 5,000 communities across the country,” and ultimately, under fire from investors, the company has shown little inclination to slow down its expansion. do not have.
Checking out footage from one of the new Flock Solar Condor cameras.Image credit: Herd Safety
Data retention
One of the big challenges with camera technology is how long cameras store footage and data. Flock suggests that by default he saves your data for one month.
“[Data] will remain on your device for 30 days, after which you can watch it live or download it from your device,” Quintrell admits.
This data retention policy is one of particular concern to the ACLU, which argues that a 72-hour policy should be sufficient for video footage, but the ACLU says data retention policies are not subject to “flocked deletion and destruction.” “ within 3 minutes'' after photos and data are first captured. ”
police ears and eyes
We live in a complex world where many police departments are struggling to recruit the staff they need, and some level of video surveillance and AI-enhanced policing could fill the gap. I asked Flock's head of strategy what he's most excited about.
“What's the most exciting thing? There are many places where crime is high and there is no way to get objective evidence (…) Law enforcement is finding it harder to hire people. As a result, employment is declining. “And retail crime continues to explode, which ultimately hurts us all. It just makes everything more expensive,” Quintrell said. .
“If you're a police department, it's very difficult to hire people who are willing to put on a badge and do a really hard job. From wherever you need to go, whether it's an intersection, a park, a business customer. We want to help you get the evidence, we just want to make sure your inventory doesn't go out unpaid. [Solar Condor] Turn really complex and expensive construction projects into simple ones. If you have a few hours of sunlight and a place to put up a pole, we can help you solve this problem. ”
It's hard to argue with the fact that it's hard to hire police officers these days, but there's no doubt that solar power has made the logistical problem of ubiquitous camera coverage much easier. there is no. However, with large (solar) power generation comes great responsibility. The question then becomes whether camera networks run by private, for-profit companies have the appropriate level of oversight and accountability needed to make up for the gaps.