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Surveillance technology startup Flock announced<\/a> a series of new policies and tools on Thursday, claiming they will help curb abuse of its automated license plate camera reader systems and help keep its law enforcement customers accountable.<\/p>\n Flock is now recommending police departments retain data for seven days rather than the previous 30 days. Along with this change, the company introduced what it calls \u201cEvidence Mode,\u201d which can be turned on when customers need to retain data for longer periods in \u201cexceptional cases\u201d and requires a specific case number. Customers will also now be able to set limits on the data they share with other customers based on the type of offense that\u2019s under investigation.\u00a0<\/p>\n The company also highlighted a tool called \u201cAudit Assistance\u201d as one of the key changes. Flock launched the tool<\/a> in April. Since then, Flock said \u201cmore than one-third\u201d of its customers have turned it on, and the startup is now requiring all customers to enable it by the end of the year.<\/p>\n Flock said Audit Assistance \u201cdetects abnormal activity and flags it for Administrator review,\u201d according to the blog post released Thursday. If that happens, the tool can automatically lock out users who have been flagged until an administrator intervenes. According to Flock, the tool has already helped customers spot and stop abuse.<\/p>\n Several executives have touted the capabilities of Audit Assistance. But despite its stated importance, Flock<\/a> has not explained in detail how Audit Assistance actually works.<\/p>\n Some official comments provide some understanding of what Audit Assistance can do; it gets vague when trying to determine how it does it.<\/p>\n For instance, Flock\u2019s head of trust and compliance Ashley Haber said in a video<\/a> that the Audit Assistance can flag \u201cwhat may look like an odd search history from a specific user,\u201d helping customers understand how their users are operating the system.\u00a0In another video<\/a>, Flock co-founder Paige Todd said \u201cAudit Assistance actually flags unusual patterns early. Think a user searching the same plate repetitively for more than 30 days.\u201d<\/p>\n And Major Patrick Krieg of the Dunwoody, Georgia Police Department, a Flock customer, described the feature<\/a> in a press release as \u201can algorithm that has notified us of any type of bias.\u201d<\/p>\n Flock describes<\/a> Audit Assistance as a feature that can \u201csurface atypical activity early and review it quickly with a clear, documented workflow.\u201d<\/p>\n What\u2019s unclear \u2014 and TechCrunch has asked for answers about \u2014 is how this \u201calgorithm\u201d actually works, what data is it trained on, and if it was developed using a large language model. TechCrunch also asked what kind of patterns is it designed to surface and what exactly gets flagged as \u201cabnormal activity\u201d?\u00a0<\/p>\n According to Flock, Audit Assistance is not based on [Machine Learning] or AI. The company told TechCrunch that \u201cIt is a data tool that flags atypical search patterns for further review. One example that would trigger a flag is if a user searches for the same plate using multiple different case codes, as this could potentially indicate abuse. A flag does not mean that it is definitely abuse \u2014 it only means it warrants further investigation.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Numerous questions remain unanswered, however, including whether Flock has any statistics or data that shows how effective the tool is, what its false positive and false negative rates are, and if it has been audited by a third party?<\/p>\n Privacy experts and Flock critics are not impressed by Audit Assistance.\u00a0<\/p>\n The American Civil Liberties Union senior policy counsel Chad Marlow wrote<\/a> in response to Flock\u2019s announcement that \u201cthere is no evidence that the tool works consistently\u201d to address abuse.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhile dozens of officers have recently been arrested, fired, or otherwise disciplined for misusing Flock for personal reasons, Flock claims these arrests are proof its auditing tool works,\u201d Marlow wrote. \u201cHowever, unless we know the number of officers misusing the system, we cannot conclude if Flock and its auditing tools are catching 95% of violators or 5%. Flock needs to have its auditing tool analyzed by an independent evaluator to determine its actual effectiveness. Until then, we don\u2019t know if the tool is a real security measure or just window dressing.\u201d<\/p>\n Cooper Quintin, a security researcher and senior public interest technologist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told TechCrunch that it may not even matter whether Audit Assistance works.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIf it does work, law enforcement will figure out ways to get around it,\u201d he said, adding that what matters in the end is whether abusers are caught and held accountable. \u201cIf there are no consequences for abuse and whoever [the tool] reports to is the same police agency that is doing the abuse, it\u2019s just a fig leaf for Flock. The best way to ensure accountability is to pass laws constraining the use of this technology and requiring a warrant for its use.\u201d<\/p>\n Rachel Levinson-Waldman, the director of the Brennan Center\u2019s Liberty and National Security Program, told TechCrunch that making Audit Assistance mandatory is a step in the right direction, and that \u201cin theory\u201d the tool is \u201ca great idea.\u201d But she also said the tool itself \u201cneeds to be audited\u201d because there\u2019s not enough information about how it works in practice.<\/p>\n Flock\u2019s announcements come after years of reported incidents of its customers repeatedly<\/a> abusing its technology. Earlier this week, three former Georgia sheriff\u2019s deputies were arrested and accused<\/a> of using Flock cameras to stalk people with whom they had a \u201cpersonal relationship at the time,\u201d as the Bibb County Sheriff\u2019s Office said in a press release. In this case, Bibb County Sheriff David Davis specifically called out Flock\u2019s new tool Audit Assistance for uncovering the misuse.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission<\/a>. This doesn\u2019t affect our editorial independence.<\/em><\/p>\n