Flock Tests AI That Tracks People by Driving Patterns
The surveillance company is developing OS Investigate, a tool that lets police search for individuals based solely on vehicle movement patterns, drawing sharp criticism over mass surveillance.
The surveillance company is developing OS Investigate, a tool that lets police search for individuals based solely on vehicle movement patterns, drawing sharp criticism over mass surveillance.
Surveillance company Flock Safety is developing a new artificial intelligence tool called OS Investigate that allows police to search for people based on their driving patterns, without needing a license plate, name, or physical description, Engadget and The Next Web reported on Tuesday, citing a WIRED investigation.
The tool was initially called Nightshift and is now named OS Investigate. It links vehicle scans to police records, 911 emergency logs, ballistic results, and commercial identity databases. This turns Flock's camera network from a record of vehicle movements into a suspect-generating tool, according to WIRED.
WIRED journalists Dhruv Mehrotra and Dell Cameron reconstructed the tool from files exposed through Flock's own reporting pages. The code revealed queries, search patterns, and intended workflows, though it did not expose the underlying model instructions or the checks applied on Flock's servers.
Of the queries WIRED reviewed, 19 focus on behavioral patterns, and 14 do not require a license plate, name, or physical description. An officer enters a location, time period, and behavior, and the tool returns matching individuals or vehicles. One of the preloaded queries reads: "find me witnesses based on vehicles most seen in [neighborhood] during [last 14 days] during [daily timeframe.]"
Another query flags vehicles that visited three or more stores in three days. One query starts with individuals arrested more than twice in two years, maps their homes, and orders a detailed workup for three people.
"I don't know how else to say this, but this sounds completely insane. I don't know how anyone can argue against the idea that Flock literally tracks people."
said Noel Pichardo, a former police officer who reviewed the software for WIRED.
Chad Marlow, an attorney at the ACLU, warns that the danger lies in officers being able to "go fishing" for crimes. "The difference between a police officer saying, 'Do you see any criminal patterns' or 'Find me criminal patterns' is going to produce two different things. And I think the fact that they don't seem to have any limitations on the prompts enables the police to almost lead the AI in what it does."
Independent security researcher Buchodi notes that "there are a lot of innocent activities that could be flagged, even if it also might be quite useful for investigators." An anonymous officer who used the tool said the witness-finding aspect made him "slightly uncomfortable," but added: "as law enforcement, we need to use every tool available, in spite of what the 'defund' people say."
Flock faces growing criticism over how police use existing tools. The Washington Post reported this month that at least 50 police officers have faced charges or criminal complaints for misusing license plate reader technology. Flock cameras were involved in 46 of those cases, including alleged stalking of former partners.
In Massachusetts, an officer faces possible termination and charges for misusing Flock cameras, while a community in Ohio is calling for a pause on Flock surveillance systems, ABC News reporter Faith Abubey reported. In one Minnesota town, all Flock cameras disappeared overnight, and the police department will not replace them.
Several communities, from Mountain View, California, to Bandera, Texas, have canceled or are considering canceling contracts with Flock, according to WIRED.
On August 13, 2026, Flock announced new security measures: reducing the default data retention period to 7 days, automatic locking for unusual activity, and a requirement to attach case numbers to searches by the end of 2026.
Flock spokesperson Paris Lewbel told WIRED that OS Investigate is in development with a small group of police partners, is separate from the license plate reader product, and its capabilities may change before a wider release. The company did not dispute the features WIRED described.
CEO Garrett Langley said on the All-In podcast this week that drones are now the company's fastest-growing business. In March 2025, Flock raised $275 million at a $7.5 billion valuation in a round led by Andreessen Horowitz, and Business Insider estimates a newer valuation of $8.4 billion. Cameras are installed in more than 6,000 communities.
Competitor Axon is also linking its own license plate reader cameras to a real-time operations platform, in a broader race to consolidate dispatching, video, and records into a single searchable police system.
A separate project called "Have I Been Flocked" allows drivers to check if someone has run a search on their plate through the system. It relies on audit logs that organizers collected through public records requests to more than 6,500 agencies, noting that the data is incomplete and often redacted.
