Flock Safety's AI Tool Tracks Drivers by Movement Patterns Alone
In brief
- OS Investigate identifies drivers using movement patterns alone, without names or license plates.
- Fourteen of 69 preloaded prompts locate suspects with zero identifying information.
- Wired obtained the code from files accessible on Flock's own website login pages.
- Flock's public statements claim its technology cannot track individuals, contradicting OS Investigate's revealed capabilities.
The AI Prompts Behind the Tracking
OS Investigate contains 69 preloaded prompts that officers can select from or customize. An officer opens a chat box and picks from a menu of 69 canned prompts, or writes their own.
Fourteen of the prompts need no plate, name, or description at all. The system can identify drivers based on behavioral patterns such as visiting multiple retail stores or banks within a specified timeframe. An officer supplies a location, a window of time, and a behavior—cars that hit three retail stores in three days, or several banks in a week—and the system returns matches.
The system also identifies associates by counting how often other license plates appear at the same cameras within a two-minute window of a target car. This logic is spelled out in the code Wired reviewed.
What Flock Says vs. What the Code Shows
Flock has long told the public its technology "cannot recognize, identify, or track individuals" and is "not for watching people." Yet the OS Investigate code demonstrates exactly that capability.
Flock spokesperson Paris Lewbel called OS Investigate a separate product from the company's license-plate readers, built to help investigators work across records their agencies already hold. The software—first called Nightshift, now renamed OS Investigate—is still in development and in testing with a small group of law enforcement partners.
The gap between Flock's public messaging and the tool's actual function has drawn criticism. A former Rhode Island police officer told Wired the system sounds "completely insane," adding that "I don't know how anyone can argue against the idea that Flock literally tracks people."
Rising Backlash and Legislative Response
The revelation comes amid growing pushback against Flock's surveillance infrastructure. In June and July, activists spray-painted, taped over, and destroyed Flock cameras across the country; The Guardian counted at least 33 incidents recorded across 23 states.
A report by the Institute for Justice found over two dozen cases of officers resigning or being arrested for allegedly using license-plate readers to stalk current or former partners. Rep. Thomas Massie's planned bill would withhold federal funding from agencies that deploy the technology.
