FLOCK
What the
22
More Cameras in Lane County
24
Cameras in Springfield
56
Cameras in Eugene
Current Status
Eugene
Springfield
Lane County
OFF (PAUSED)
OFF (PAUSED)
Not Yet Installed
Flock
- Is a surveillance system
- and a network
- for law enforcement
- owned and run by a venture capital-funded tech startup
- that incentivizes data sharing
- paid for by public funds
- with no oversight
Anatomy of a Flock camera
- Motion-activated camera sensor with infrared LEDs for nighttime use
- Battery by https://phdenergy.com/
- GPS, LTE, Bluetooth, Wifi, and audio modules
Software
- AI-powered object detection (TensorFlow model)
- Android OS
- RTSP server: http://happytimesoft.com/products/rtsp-server/index.html
Hardware
Images and ?
Images of vehicles (and...)
Data Flow
Overview
- Flocks owns the hardware, the software, and the data*
- This is a subscription service: about $2,500 per camera per year
- Paid for by the Organized Retail Theft grant fund (in Eugene and Springfield) for the first two years
- Installed without public input, city council approval, or even applicable policies
Q&A
Ask good questions.
The company
2017
Founded
Flock is a Silicon Valley tech startup
$950 M
in funding
$300 M
in annual revenue
$7.5 B
Valuation
Tell us about a time you successfully hacked some (non-computer) system to your advantage.
RTSP Server
Flock and crime
Here's what happened:
- Flock pays two employees to draft a whitepaper on Flock's impact on crime
- It then brings the completed whitepaper to two researchers at Texas universities and asks them to review its methodology;
- Then Flock adds them as authors to the "study";
- ...and publishes the study...
- ...and turns that into a press release that Flock is "instrumental in solving 10 percent of reported crime in the U.S."
Here's what happened:
- Flock pays two employees to draft a whitepaper on Flock's impact on crime
- It then brings the completed whitepaper to two researchers at Texas universities and asks them to review its methodology;
- Then Flock adds them as authors to the "study";
- ...and publishes the study...
- ...and turns that into a press release that Flock is "instrumental in solving 10 percent of reported crime in the U.S."
The researchers: "Wait... what? No."
March 2021
March 2021
March 2021
What is an alpr?
ALPR
- License plates ONLY
- Traffic enforcement
- Often connected to some kind of database
-
Limited capabilities
- Hotlists
- Have been around for decades (~1999)
Automated License Plate Reader
ALPR
Automated License Plate Reader
CAD / MCT
Computer or database for users
Cameras
Local Computer
Image processing and license plate recognition
ALPR
Automated License Plate Reader
Is flock an ALPR?
March 2021
This is a slide from Eugene Police Department's officer training materials on Flock, obtained by a public records request.
It is showing officers how to use a "license plate reader" to locate people on bicycles.
Movement tracking
This is an audio clip from a Flock training video that we obtained.
The video shows a Flock employee giving a police department a tour of Flock's features and abilities, showing them how to use the software.
Data Sharing
...a social media surveillance network.
- Federal Agent Fred would like to run a search across Oregon's Flock installations
- Federal Agent Fred would like to run a search across Oregon's Flock installations
- Oregon state law prohibits this
- Federal Agent Fred would like to run a search across Oregon's Flock installations
- Oregon state law prohibits this
- Federal Agent Fred contacts the Santa Rosa County Florida Sheriff's Office
- Federal Agent Fred would like to run a search across Oregon's Flock installations
- Oregon state law prohibits this
- Federal Agent Fred contacts the Santa Rosa County Florida Sheriff's Office
- Springfield, Oregon PD currently shares access to their network with Santa Rosa County Florida SO
- Federal Agent Fred would like to run a search across Oregon's Flock installations
- Oregon state law prohibits this
- Federal Agent Fred contacts the Santa Rosa County Florida Sheriff's Office
- Springfield, Oregon PD currently shares access to their network with Santa Rosa County Florida SO
- Agent Fred can now see what Springfield, Oregon sees
- Federal Agent Fred would like to run a search across Oregon's Flock installations
- Oregon state law prohibits this
- Federal Agent Fred contacts the Santa Rosa County Florida Sheriff's Office
- Springfield, Oregon PD currently shares access to their network with Santa Rosa County Florida SO
- Agent Fred can now see what Springfield, Oregon sees
Or, Agent Fred can request a larger-scale search from Santa Rosa County Florida on his behalf
This is called "BACK DOOR" Data sharing
(People in data security consider this to be a really bad thing.)
A highly-interconnected network with lots of different points that can leak data
Porous network:
March 2021
Encryption
Encryption in transit
Data is protected from somebody "listening in" over the network connection
Encryption at rest
Data is protected from somebody at AWS
End to end encryption?
Data is protected from unauthorized access at Flock
Data Ownership
Flock: our customers own the data. They get to decide how it's used and who they share it with.
If you don't own the encryption, then you don't own the data.
Case in point:
Oversight
