Jim was at his desk when the phone call came in.
“Hey, Jim! This is Charlie!”
Jim hadn’t talked to Charlie in years.
“Hey, um, Jim, I understand that your agency has some license plate recognition capabilities.”
Jim confirmed this.
“Um, mind if I take a look at it?”
Jim asked what Charlie wanted to see.
“You know…stuff.”
If you boil down the controversies about Flock Safety, Clearview AI, and other investigative software packages, some of them come down to these data sharing issues.
Flock Safety may sign a contract with a particular local police department, the police department may use the software only for authorized purposes, and may ensure that department personnel are trained not to use the software to stalk ex-girlfriends and the like.
But in law enforcement, there’s a long-standing tradition of law enforcement agencies helping each other out.
“Interagency collaboration in law enforcement is the process of multiple agencies working together to share resources, coordinate responses, and improve public safety outcomes. From routine operations to large-scale emergencies, collaboration between agencies is essential for effective policing.”
As long as the two agencies have similar purposes, no problem.
But what if the second agency has different priorities than the first?
Let’s take an extreme example.
- Agency 1 uses Flock Safety data ONLY to find people who run red lights or speed.
- Agency 2 uses Flock Safety data to find people who are not running red lights, but are going to suspicious places and associating with suspicious people.
Is this justified investigation, or overreaching surveillance?
And, more importantly, does Agency 1 agree with these uses?
Just thinking out loud…what if the Flock licenses with these agencies prohibited agencies from letting other agencies use the software? There’s even an economic justification for it: every agency that borrows the Flock account of the first agency is a potential loss of sales to Flock.
Bredemarket 