Amazon's Ring Partners with Law Enforcement Tech Company, Flock, Raising Privacy Concerns

Ring has announced its new partnership with Flock Security, an Atlanta-based surveillance technology company, to allow law enforcement agencies to request footage from Ring users digitally.

Local police departments who buy access to Flock solutions can now use Community Requests to put out a call for Ring video taken at or near the scene of a crime.

Flock Safety operates a network of private surveillance products powered by AI. Their cameras and automated license plate readers (ALPRs) can be found nationwide, from hardware store parking lots, to HOA neighborhoods, to public roads. 

Photo: Screenshot from Flock’s Product page for ALRPs

Unlike a typical plate reader, Flock’s ALPRs are capable of detecting make, model, and distinguishing features like dents and bumper stickers. Their patent also reveals they are capable of gauging the gender, race, height, and weight of a driver or passenger. ]

Local law enforcement departments who pay subscription access to Flock’s network can not only search for a plate and the locations where it has been logged, but use AI analysis to link cars frequently seen with one another.

Privacy groups are concerned. Jay Stanley at the ACLU argues features like these are “using the camera network not just to investigate based on suspicion, but to generate suspicion itself.” Without procedures for the storage and deletion of license plate logs, normal ALPRs – that is, those without AI tools – can already be used track innocent drivers’ movements, no warrant required. But Flock’s AI appears to be more than a tool for police work—it is doing the police work itself, with all the pitfalls that outsourcing sensitive work to AI entails. 

Flock and ICE

ICE was recently discovered to be circumventing Flock policy by asking law enforcement agencies to perform searches for them.

Suncoast Searchlight found that Florida Highway Patrol used Flock to make several searches leading up to Operation Tidal Wave, a joint state and Federal crackdown that led to 1,120 arrests. 

“State troopers routinely tag searches with keywords like ‘criminal investigation,’ ‘fleeing,’ ‘stolen vehicle’ and ‘crash,’” read Searchlight’s report. “But in recent months, they’ve increasingly cited immigration-related terms.”

Users with less accountability than law enforcement and Federal agencies, such as HOAs who use Flock products, have access to the footage their devices have collected, and control over who can and cannot see it. 

Existing 4th amendment protections apply for Ring users. They have the option to anonymously decline Community Requests. But for as long as judiciary protection against ALPRs are thin, innocent passersby captured in their footage do not enjoy 4^th amendment protections. 

This raises questions about who can see Ring footage, once it’s shared through Community Requests.

Transparency Portals

Police departments can opt to create a transparency portal, which explains acceptable uses of Flock technology within their department. Mt Dora PD, for example, prohibits use of the database for “Immigration enforcement, traffic enforcement, harrassment (sic) or intimidation, usage based solely on a protected class (i.e. race, sex, religion),” and “[p]ersonal use.”

It also includes a list of police departments it shares its data with, including the Miami-Dade, Ft Lauderdale, and West Palm Beach Sheriff’s Offices, among many others.

Coral Springs PD has no such portal, despite having one of the largest concentrations of ALPRs within South Florida according to open source mapping, and approving a budget for Flock products in 2022. 

Flock’s Future

As Flock gains access to an increasing number of video sources, so too does its efficacy, and its potential for misuse. Privacy activists are pushing back.

In Denver, residents are protesting the renewal of a city contract with Flock, a deal they say was done behind closed doors. They echo summer protests in Austin, where activists successfully campaigned against the installation of ALPRs.

Just 11 miles south of the Denver town hall, on the same day as the protests, a video was uploaded to YouTube showing a Columbine Valley resident accused of package theft based on Flock footage.

Chrisanna Elser spent days emailing police department administrators evidence she was not present at the time or location of the crime. She told the Colorado Sun, “It seemed to be the other way around that it was guilty until you prove yourself innocent.” 

For these reasons Flock’s aggressive and unpopular expansion into major US cities, which are increasingly becoming political battlegrounds between ICE and city residents, are meeting local resistance.