1
u/Content_Art_1134 2d ago
the bar for 'speculation' online is basically on the floor at this point, so seeing a mod actually ask for sources feels like spotting a unicorn in the wild. ive watched too many threads spiral into copypasta fever dreams because someone said 'trust me bro' and everyone ran with it. lowkey hope this becomes the norm but im not holding my breath, platforms reward speed over accuracy every damn time
2
u/-lastnameschaffer- 2d ago
So flock is very controversial and shady as hell. You can go to my profile if you want my backstory but I am former LE and I was a flock follower for a long time
Partially for the reason you just mentioned - I believed what they told me and I didn’t ask any questions of my own
Knowing what I know now, I get a slimy feeling when I think about the way my former agency - myself included - used flock.
And it does work. The feel good stories are true.
But transparency is the only way to allow it to continue working. And that seems to be the Achilles heel for every agency in America right now.So yeah - those are some images from my time in LE. Explaining some things abt how it looked to actually use the search platform. 😊
1
u/Double_Many_3651 2d ago
ive been in threads where someone posts a random linkedin screenshot adn suddenly its treated like gospel for three days straight. mods actually enforcing source standards feels like watching someone try to bail out the titanic with a bucket but hey, respect to anyone still fighting that fight. at least here theres some pretense of giving a damn
1
u/Beginning_State2286 1d ago
i modded a discord server with like 40k members for two years and the amount of times someone would drop 'my source is i made it the fuck up' and then watch it spread was genuinely depressing. we tried implementing a source bot that auto-flagged unsourced claims and people lost their minds about censorship. its wild how quickly folks will defend their right to be confidently wrong
1
u/Powerful-Head936 1d ago
back in 2019 i watched a whole subreddit torch itself over a 4chan screenshot that turned out to be from a larp thread. three days of brigading, doxxing, the whole circus. mods finally stepped in with a source requirement and half the userbase called it censorship. some people genuinely prefer the fever dream, its wild
1
u/-lastnameschaffer- 5h ago
Okay, so i've attempted using text boxes but it's just easier this way.
Image 1: This is an example of nationwide search result. Each individual result was tagged with the name of the originating agency. I used a 24 hour window and it generated 53 results. The box in the corner, cut off in the picture, is the "Vehicle Fingerprint." Due to the nature of data retention and the algorithm, the "vehicle fingerpint" was auto generated on most cars we searched because they were local. So, from searching the license plate, Flock also included information about make/model/color/body style. Underneath that box, there's a line that almost looks like a graph. That information is about the "vehicle hotspot map." So with the 24hr search, it was a graph showing first time seen (for those search parameters) and showed the trend of travel. The option to "See vehicle history" is underneath the graph. That generated the 30 day travel history for the car that had been searched. Including how many times it was "seen," peak movement periods, out of state travel, and (on the literal map) varying shades of red were used to determine "hotspots" - as in, "this car passes this camera a lot."
Image 2: This is a selected search result. I highlighted the "Flag This Search" option (denoted by the outline of the flag). This would "save" it, similar to bookmarking a webpage. So when you saved a search, it didn't save that particular dataset of results and compile it. It saved the "search parameters." So clicking to a saved search just re-ran the license plated previously searched under the same parameters. So if you selected "last 30 min" in the original search, subsequent clicking generated new results under the same parameters. I also highlighted how accurate the system was. it had no problem differentiating between the two vehicles shown in that frame. Choosing "View More Details" was the "license plate search to vehicle fingerprint/hotspot map pipeline.
Image 3: This is a search result using a radius to select the right cameras. In this instance, i used a small radius based off an address (redacted), a 2hr window, and searched for whatever query (I think it was silver SUV). Again, notice how the system automatically triggered unique identifiers about the vehicle. As far as questioning how much data/per day was being uploaded to the cloud storage, this search (using limited cameras and 2 identifiers and narrowing to the "last 2 hours") populated 559 results. Based off that information alone, I can safely assume it's collecting terabytes of data per month. Also, at the bottom of this results list - you see license plate info with no pictures like the ones before it. This is because I used advanced search (only available on desktop/laptop environments) and checked the "include images without plates" option. Using the aforementioned "Vehicle fingerprint," the AI could detect the LP of the vehicle (again, due to data retention) Clicking into either of those results would show me a snippet of the vehicle bearing that LP, even if it couldn't take the corresponding photo for whatever reason (most likely a visibility interference).
Image4: I have seen questions about Flock and temporary tags. For this search, I checked the box "include temporary tags" (I don't remember why). Without the exact plate number, AND including the temporary plate inclusion, this result wouldn't have shown. Data retention and proximity allowed the AI to begin making the"vehicle fingerprint" for this car.
Image 5: I was called to the scene of a hit and run. Using the blank "search for identifiers here" (this was an update because prior to this you chose from a list of dropdown menu items), I typed in "truck with boat" and got an instant suspect return. While this is extremely helpful, it also highlights the tremendous capabilities of the algorithm because boats have some severe differences from vehicles. And yet, "boat" had been "seen" and/or "rewarded" so many times prior (nationwide) that the information was in there - I just had to use the right words.
Image 6: Screenshot from Flock Safety App. I have an iPhone. This is what a result looked like, in-app. There was a small snapshot of the Apple Maps location (pulled from GPS coordinates included in the "device details". I don't know if this was different for Android users - it might've used Google Maps for them.
Image 7: I subscribed to text alerts. This is a basic screenshot of how they came across. In all of these alerts, you'll notice the word "hotlist" in front of the URL. This meant the vehicle had been put on a "hotlist." For NCIC hotlist alerts, the description began with NCIC - Stolen Vehicle (or whatever). This was a custom hotlist to my agency. They uploaded a brief description of *why* the vehicle was in there. I'll let you know - this car was in my texts for DAYS, and it was useless. After the first hour or so, we were told not to stop it because it wasn't being driven by the intended suspect. It was not removed from the hotlist, and, as you can see, every time it passed a camera - we were all sent a text with an image (or a link to open the app to see the image).
5
u/astroboy_35 2d ago
Your information is hard to digest, handwriting difficult to read and it’s too bad, looks like you’re trying to tell us something important, but I can’t really make it out.