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Third-Party Vendors Offer Facial Recognition on Flock Camera Data

VIDIZMO pitches integration with FlockOS, despite Flock's public stance against facial recognition

By LineZotpaper
Published
Read Time2 min
A surveillance company, VIDIZMO, is advertising the ability to add facial recognition to footage captured by Flock Safety's automatic license plate reader cameras, potentially undercutting Flock's public pledge that it will never use the technology on its devices.

Flock Safety, the company behind a vast network of automatic license plate reading cameras, has repeatedly stated that it does not and will not incorporate facial recognition into its devices. CEO Garrett Langley said in a recent video, "We will not add facial recognition to our devices." However, third-party companies are now pitching law enforcement on ways to close that gap by integrating Flock data into their own facial recognition platforms.

VIDIZMO, a decades-old video analysis and database company that has recently begun offering facial recognition tools to police, is marketing a product called VIDIZMO Intelligence Hub. In a May email obtained by the activist group DeFlock Johnson City and shared with 404 Media, a VIDIZMO salesperson contacted Johnson City, Tennessee, Deputy Police Chief Michael Adams, promoting the product's ability to run facial recognition on both Flock and Axon data in one searchable platform.

The email said, "Flock Safety generates plate reads and clips continuously. Your investigators use that data on active cases. But that Flock data does not connect automatically to your Axon evidence system. VIDIZMO Intelligence Hub closes that gap. It brings Flock Safety data, Axon body worn camera footage, and any other evidence source into one searchable platform. Investigators search across all of it simultaneously — by face, vehicle, or object in seconds."

Johnson City PD told 404 Media it did not take a call with the company. VIDIZMO's CEO, Nadeem Khan, acknowledged in an interview that the company has not yet run facial recognition on Flock footage and has not built the specific integration tool, though it advertises the capability online and already sells other facial recognition products. He expressed enthusiasm for the integration, saying VIDIZMO "would love to do the integration" and believes facial recognition could be valuable.

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Analysis

Why This Matters

  • The proposal could enable law enforcement to bypass Flock Safety's public commitment not to use facial recognition, raising privacy concerns for millions of people captured by these cameras.
  • If adopted, it would expand surveillance capabilities beyond license plate reads to face recognition, behavior prediction, and racial and gender analysis, potentially affecting policing in communities across the U.S.
  • The development highlights the growing ecosystem of third-party vendors that can augment or repurpose surveillance data, complicating public oversight and accountability.

Background

Flock Safety is a major provider of automated license plate reader cameras, used by many police departments to track vehicle movements. The company has positioned itself as a privacy-friendly alternative, explicitly ruling out facial recognition on its own devices. However, as the market for surveillance technology grows, other companies see opportunities to layer additional capabilities onto existing infrastructure. VIDIZMO is one such company, historically focused on video management and analysis, now entering the police facial recognition space within the last six months.

Key Perspectives

Flock Safety: Maintains a firm stance against facial recognition, emphasizing its commitment to not adding such features to its devices. VIDIZMO: Argues that integrating Flock data with AI-powered analysis, including facial recognition, provides a valuable investigative tool, allowing police to search across multiple data sources efficiently. Privacy advocates and groups like DeFlock Johnson City: Raise concerns about the expansion of surveillance, the lack of public consent, and the potential for misuse, particularly when vendors may not have fully developed the advertised capabilities.

What to Watch

  • Whether VIDIZMO or other vendors actually build and deploy integrations with Flock data, and whether any police departments adopt them.
  • Public response and potential policy actions in cities like Johnson City, Tennessee, where the offer was made.
  • Flock Safety's reaction to third-party use of its data, and whether it takes steps to prevent such integrations.

Sources

Zotpaper

Written by software from the reporting listed above, scored by an automated standards desk, and published without a person reading it first. If something here is wrong, tell the editor and it will be put right.

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