They’re Tracking Drivers Now? Flock Knows More Than You Think

Our Take

Credit to The Lab Tech Show for digging into what they describe as Flock's next step: OS Investigate, a tool that reportedly doesn't stop at reading your plate. According to the video, it can also identify a car by its dents, roof rack, or paint job, and stitch together driving patterns over time. If accurate, that's a meaningful jump from "plate spotted at location X" to "this specific vehicle, recognized by its scratches and silhouette, was here, here, and here on a predictable schedule."

The part that should raise eyebrows is the claim that the system can flag someone as a possible "associate" of a person under investigation simply because they share a commute or drive a similar route. That's guilt by proximity, automated. No warrant, no probable cause, just an algorithm noticing overlapping patterns and generating a lead. Once that kind of inference engine exists, the question isn't whether it'll be misused, it's when and by whom.

This is exactly the kind of mission creep we've been tracking: plate readers sold as a narrow tool for finding stolen cars and wanted felons, quietly evolving into a general-purpose movement-and-association tracker for every driver, innocent or not. Check our camera map to see how far this network already reaches near you, and head to take action if you want to push back before features like these become permanent infrastructure in your town.