FedEx is using AI-powered cameras installed on its trucks to aid police investigations, a new report has found.
The popular postal company has partnered with a $4 billion surveillance startup based in Georgia called Flock Safety. Forbes reported.
Flock specializes in automated license plate recognition and video surveillance and already operates a fleet of approximately 40,000 cameras across 4,000 cities in 40 states.
FedEx is working with the company to monitor its facilities in the US, but under the deal it will also share its Flock surveillance feeds with law enforcement agencies. And it is believed to be one of four multi-billion private companies with this arrangement.
Critics compare the move to the rollout of a large-scale surveillance network. It turns out that some local police forces also share their Flock feeds with FedEx.
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FedEx is using AI-powered cameras installed on its trucks to aid police investigations, a new report from Forbes finds
The popular postal service has partnered with Flock, a $4 billion Georgia surveillance startup
Jay Stanley, a policy analyst at the ACLU, told the Virginian pilot: ‘There is a simple principle that we have always held in this country, and that is that the government should not keep an eye on everyone all the time in case someone commits a crime.’
“The United States is not China,” he continued. ‘But these cameras are deployed with such density that it is as if everyone is being followed via GPS.’
Responding to Forbes’ report that FedEx was part of Flock’s surveillance system, he told the paper, “It raises questions about why a private company… would have privileged access to data that is normally only available for law enforcement.”
He called it “very disturbing.”
Flock Safety’s cameras are are used to track vehicles based on license plates, but also based on the make, model and color of the car. Other identifying features are also monitored, such as dents and even bumper stickers.
Lisa Femia, a lawyer at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, warned that FedEx’s participation could be problematic because private companies are not subject to the same transparency laws as police.
This, she told Forbes, would ‘[leave] the public in the dark and at the same time expands a kind of mass surveillance network.’
Flock uses real-time data “to enable and encourage safer driving,” according to a description on its website
FedEx is believed to be one of four multi-billion dollar companies working with Flock Safety
The Shelby County Sheriff’s Office in Tennessee confirmed its partnership with Flock in an email to Forbes.
“We share the data from our Flock license plate scanners with FedEx in the same way we share the data with other law enforcement agencies, locally, regionally and nationally,” John Morris, public information officer, told the outlet.
He also confirmed that his department had access to FedEx’s Flock feeds.
The police department’s participation came to light after Forbes found the department’s name on public lists of data-sharing partners, along with other parties such as the Pittsboro Police Department in Indiana, just outside Indianapolis.
Pittsboro Police Chief Scott King reportedly did not comment on why his department is participating, but insisted that police had not requested access to a private system.
“Only those in law enforcement,” he said.
“The United States is not China,” Jay Stanley, a policy analyst at the ACLU, told the Virginian-Pilot. “But these cameras are deployed at such a density that it’s as if everyone is being tracked by GPS.”
The Shelby County Sheriff’s Office in Tennessee confirmed the potentially problematic partnership with FedEx. Lt. David Ballars can be seen showing off Flock’s technology in a video posted to the company’s YouTube page
Greenwood Police Assistant Chief Matthew Fillenwarth confirmed his force is participating in a similar manner, including in Indiana.
Memphis police also said they received security camera footage from FedEx, but did not confirm whether it was provided by Flock.
When speaking about license plate reader networks, Brett Max Kaufman, a senior staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), said Forbes: ‘The scale of this kind of surveillance is simply unbelievable.’
He then described to the newspaper how the unauthorized surveillance of citizens en masse was “pretty heinous.”
FedEx declined to answer questions about the partnership with Flock, saying in a statement: “We take the safety of our team members very seriously. That’s why we don’t discuss our security procedures publicly.”
There is no unlawful cooperation, but some critics argue that it violates the basic principles of the constitution.
For now, it is currently unclear how far-reaching the collaboration between law enforcement agencies and FedEx actually is and how much Flock data is being shared.
Forbes also found that FedEx wasn’t the only one to decide to sign on, with Kaiser Permanente, the largest health insurer in the US, also participating.
When asked, FedEx declined to answer questions about the partnership, saying in a statement: “We take the safety of our team members very seriously. That’s why we don’t discuss our safety procedures publicly.” The Flock interface is used here by law enforcement in Tennessee
Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in East San Francisco Bay Area. The healthcare company was also exposed as a company that is currently providing data from Flock cameras to officers
The company shared data from Flock cameras with the Northern California Regional Intelligence Center, an intelligence center that supports local and federal law enforcement investigations into serious crimes on the west coast of California.
“As part of our robust security programs, license plate readers are not only an effective visual deterrent, but the technology has also enabled us to work with law enforcement within the limits of the law,” a spokesperson confirmed.
“The technology has been used in response to warrants and subpoenas, as well as in other scenarios involving potential or ongoing crimes on the facilities’ premises. It also helped in the arrest and prosecution of those who committed crimes.”
The cameras were labeled so that passersby could see that they were filming. However, she would not comment on where the company had placed the cameras.
Meanwhile, police forces around the world have continued to choose Flock as a partner in recent years, with more than 1,800 law enforcement agencies participating.
In total, more than 3,000 U.S. communities are using Flock technology, just a decade after the startup surfaced in 2014.
Today the company is valued at nearly $4 billion, and continues to receive a steady stream of venture capital.
In 2022, it raised an astonishing $300 million in just seven months, followed by $38 million in Series B funding in February the following year.
The company uses real-time data “to enable and encourage safer driving,” according to the company’s website. The company calls it the “world’s first fully digital insurance company for connected and autonomous commercial vehicles.”
“End crime in your community,” reads a chyron aimed at private sector businesses such as grocery stores.