Twenty years ago, FedEx established its own police force. Now it’s working with local police to build out an AI car surveillance network.
Forbes has learned the shipping and business services company is using AI tools made by Flock Safety, a $4 billion car surveillance startup, to monitor its distribution and cargo facilities across the United States. As part of the deal, FedEx is providing its Flock video surveillance feeds to law enforcement, an arrangement that Flock has with at least five multi-billion dollar private companies. But publicly available documents reveal that some local police departments are also sharing their Flock feeds with FedEx — a rare instance of a private company availing itself of a police surveillance apparatus.
To civil rights activists, such close collaboration has the potential to dramatically expand Flock’s car surveillance network, which already spans 4,000 cities across over 40 states and some 40,000 cameras that track vehicles by license plate, make, model, color and other identifying characteristics, like dents or bumper stickers. Lisa Femia, staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said because private entities aren’t subject to the same transparency laws as police, this sort of arrangement could “[leave] the public in the dark, while at the same time expanding a sort of mass surveillance network.”
Jay Stanley, senior policy analyst at the American Civil Liberties Union, said it was “profoundly disconcerting” that FedEx was exchanging data with law enforcement as part of Flock’s “mass surveillance” system. “It raises questions about why a private company…would have privileged access to data that normally is only available to law enforcement,” he said.
FedEx declined to answer questions about the nature of its partnership with Flock. Spokesperson Phalisha Jackson told Forbes, “We take the safety of our team members very seriously. As such, we do not publicly discuss our security procedures.”
It’s unclear just how widely law enforcement is sharing Flock data with FedEx. According to publicly available lists of data sharing partners, two police departments have granted the FedEx Air Carrier Police Department access to their Flock cameras: Shelby County Sheriff’s Office in Tennessee and Pittsboro Police Department in Indiana.
Shelby County Sheriff’s Office public information officer John Morris confirmed the collaboration. “We share reads from our Flock license plate readers with FedEx in the same manner we share the data with other law enforcement agencies, locally, regionally, and nationally,” he told Forbes via email.
Pittsboro police chief Scott King didn’t comment on why FedEx had access to its Flock feeds, but said the data flow didn’t go the other way. “We have never requested any access to a private system. Only those listed under law enforcement,” he said.
FedEx is also sharing its Flock camera feeds with other police departments, including the Greenwood Police Department in Indiana, according to Matthew Fillenwarth, assistant chief at the agency. Morris at Shelby County Sheriff’s Office confirmed his department had access to FedEx’s Flock feeds too. Memphis Police Department said it received surveillance camera feeds from FedEx through its Connect Memphis system, but declined to confirm if those systems were powered by Flock.
Flock, which was founded in 2017, has raised more than $482 million in venture capital investment from the likes of Andreessen Horowitz, helping it expand its vast network of cameras across America through both public police department contracts and through more secretive agreements with private businesses.
Forbes has now uncovered five corporate giants using Flock, none of which had publicly disclosed contracts with the surveillance startup. As Forbes previously reported, $50 billion-valued Simon Property, the country’s biggest mall owner, and home improvement giant Lowe’s, are two of the biggest clients. Like FedEx, Simon Property also has provided its mall feeds to local cops. Lowe’s appears to be doing the same in at least two instances, sharing with both Shelby County Sheriff’s Office and, per a recent public records request, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department, which is also a Flock customer. Lowe’s previously told Forbes its use of Flock was “just one example of a multifaceted approach” to combat shoplifting.
Michael Allinger, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department spokesperson, said that the agency was not a paying customer of Flock, but could still access cameras owned by a number of private organizations, including, shopping malls, residential areas maintained by homeowners’ associations, and schools.
In addition, Kaiser Permanente, the largest health insurance company in America, has shared Flock data with the Northern California Regional Intelligence Center, an intelligence hub that provides support to local and federal police investigating major crimes across California’s west coast, per a public records request filed by Forbes. Kaiser Permanente confirmed it was using Flock to protect “members, patients, visitors, employees, and physicians while they are at our facilities.”
“As part of our robust security programs, license plate readers are not only an effective visual deterrent, but the technology has allowed us to collaborate with law enforcement within the parameters of the law,” said Kathleen Chambers, Kaiser Permanente spokesperson. “The technology has been used in response to warrants and subpoenas, as well as in other scenarios regarding potential or ongoing crimes on the facilities’ premises – and it has supported the arrest and prosecution of those committing crimes.” She said that the cameras were clearly labeled to disclose to passersby that they were filming, though declined to comment on where the company had deployed the surveillance devices.
Perhaps one of the more surprising additions to Flock’s list of private customers is Ulta Beauty, the $30 billion beauty products company. According to Fillenwarth, of Greenwood Police Department, his agency can access data collected by Ulta’s Flock camera at a nearby distribution center. That data includes not just images of vehicles, but also gunshot detection alerts, according to Fillenwarth, who told Forbes that the company was trying to prevent any serious crimes against its workforce, offering a theoretical example of a disgruntled ex-employee threatening violence against former colleagues.
Ulta didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Flock’s senior vice president of policy and communications Joshua Thomas declined to comment on private customers. “Flock’s technology and tools help our customers bolster their public safety efforts by helping to deter and solve crime efficiently and objectively,” Thomas said. “Objective video evidence is crucial to solving crime and we support our customers sharing that evidence with those that they are legally allowed to do so with.”
He said Flock was helping to solve “thousands of crimes nationwide” and is working toward its “goal of leveraging technology to eliminate crime.” Forbes previously found that Flock’s marketing data had exaggerated its impact on crime rates and that the company had itself likely broken the law across various states by installing cameras without the right permits.