Flock is not just a license plate reader. They have many products. Here's an article today that includes a decent deep dive into the code of one of its new projects that's... definitely more than just license plate reading.

https://www.wired.com/story/flock-safety-os-investigate/

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bko 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

From the article:

> 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.

Sounds like they're shipping an AI that can use external datasources like an MCP. By this regard, Claude does exactly the same thing. Give it access to a database with social security numbers and it'll query them for you.

The rest of the things described in the article is all a byproduct of having a database (typically kept around for 1-7 days) of cars, their license plates, locations and some physical description of the car. For instance:

> vehicles that left one city for another and returned within a week, made repeat roundtrips over 14 days, or passed through three areas in sequence.

If you have still photos of every car passing on particular street corners, this is just a query. They're just taking photos and reading license plates. And they started getting some description of the car, like unusual things. The CEO talks about that as well. From the interview:

> A car drives by, we take a still image of the vehicle, we read the license plate, and the system’s gotten more sophisticated with time. We can detect things like a roof rack or a bumper sticker or dent or damage, but that’s at its core what the technology does...

> So it’s pretty cool technology, and pretty effective, because if you think about what happens on a 911 call, most people don’t instinctively look at the license plate and remember it. They see the thing that was unique about the car — oh, it had damage on the right side.

I would definitely recommend the interview if you want to learn more.

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chaps 4 hours ago | parent [-]

Friend, even after listening to that interview you still insisted on saying that flock ONLY does ALPR and only now that you've been given an example of where you were wrong, you suggest that I listen to the thing that clearly didn't inform you enough?

Your goalposts are quite mobile.

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bko 4 hours ago | parent [-]

I said it doesn't do facial recognition or video. Sure there's an image so it's reasonable to catalog color and stuff, but that's relatively new. It's not a big gotcha that you think it is

It's entirely reasonable imo since you have no expectation of privacy on the road. I can take pictures of cars that drive by my house. I don't even know what were arguing about here.

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chaps 4 hours ago | parent [-]

You literally said, "It's also important to note that Flock is just a license plate reader."

You're spreading misinformation about what these things are and aren't. It's fucked up. But I'm hopeful that you can do better.

Also, please, for your sake -- submit a FOIA request for footage taken from a public camera. It'll get denied because public records laws consider this sorta information private. Your oversimplification is intellectually silly.

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bko 4 hours ago | parent [-]

My brother in Christ, I am wealthy enough to live in a rich neighborhood w cameras. Others are lucky enough to live in gated communities. We have cameras for the wealthy and elite, I'm trying to expand who we care for in society.

Of course we shouldn't let some random person foia these records. These are for police matters only. What are you even arguing for?

	▲	SaucyWrong an hour ago \| parent [-]
		You are completely unhinged.

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mysterydip 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

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