A new feature has been rolled out to support auditing use of the Flock system by individual operators. It is available through any agency’s new “Operators” tab. This post gives a quick overview of the functionality.
Warning
This dashboard presents automated indicators derived from incomplete data. Findings are computer-generated and intended solely to support manual review of original log files. Flagged activity may or may not constitute a violation of law or policy depending on jurisdiction, agency rules, and context not available to this system.
When you open the tab, you will see the list of operators for this organization. Clicking one will open the insights page for that operator.
The general statistics are fairly self-explanatory.
Search activity matches the information already available elsewhere, just conveniently located here. At a glance, this enables you to get an idea of how regular this operator’s patterns are.
This is a critical element in determining the potential validity of other insights—if there isn’t much search activity, or the pattern is erratic, the automated flags for “unusual” activity can lose some or much of their value.
Surveillance targets gives an overview of repeat searches or prolonged tracking of a single target (typically a license plate) by a single operator. This uses the search anomaly index (SAI) to identify and score searches that deviate from the operator’s established baseline.
Clicking any target will open a window with more details. The algorithm has recently been slightly adjusted to look for more consistent patterns.
As usual, the identifiers are coded representations of the license plate.
A completely new feature is the “Isolated Session” table. This table shows brief periods of search activity bookended by at least 8 hours of inactivity. This pattern could indicate use of the system outside of normal work hours, especially when the operator typically performs numerous searches during a shift.
Clicking any isolated session will set the filters for the operator’s Search History table at the bottom of the page, so you can review information about the search(es).
For states where such information is available, the operator’s employment history will be displayed. This is intended to aid in the identification of police officers who are re-hired after misconduct, and to help prioritize auditing.