This next tranche of search logs comes courtesy of the non-profit Virginia Center for Investigative Journalism at WHRO Public Media[1]. These logs represent the largest single collection of log files imported to date, documenting over 12.7 million searches across two Virginia jurisdictions.
Although the technology has been available to Flock users for a while now, these are also the first imports that include logs of operators using the “visual lookup” search type which Flock’s manual describes as “[it] takes an image and turns it into an investigative lead by using Machine Learning to find similar images.”
The blog “government technology” describes it as:
… the moves push the company’s software in the direction of giving police the ability to search for vehicles using whatever cameras are at their disposal — a security camera at an ATM, a homeowner’s Ring doorbell, even a photo somebody took on their cellphone.
The company’s new Advanced Search package — which costs between $2,500 and $5,000 a year, depending on how many of Flock Safety’s cameras the agency operates — includes a feature that allows users to upload a picture of a vehicle from any source and then perform a search to see if any of the company’s cameras have seen it.
Visual lookup log entries are uninformative in their raw form. They don’t contain the images themselves, which makes it impossible to determine who or what operators are searching for. This opacity prevents any meaningful oversight of how this facial recognition-adjacent technology is being used.
Pearland TX PD ,122,2509,"08/02/2023, 07:04:49 AM UTC
09/01/2023, 07:04:49 AM UTC",,robbery warrant,,PickupChevroletsilver_grey,"09/01/2023, 07:05:02 AM UTC",visual,,These log files formed the basis for the articles “Virginia surveillance network tapped thousands of times for immigration cases” and “One sleepy Virginia town. Nearly 7 million hits on its surveillance network” by data journalist Kunle Falayi.
If you find anything newsworthy, reach out to VCIJ and let them know!
The files are network and organization audit log files for the Mecklenburg County (pop. ~32,700) sheriff’s office and Bridgewater (pop. ~6,600) police department.
Dataset Overview
- Source: Virginia Center for Investigative Journalism at WHRO Public Media
- Jurisdictions: Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office, Bridgewater Police Department
- Time Period: June 1, 2024 – June 21, 2025 (12.7 months)
- Total Searches: 12,713,808
- Published Articles: Immigration enforcement | Small town surveillance
Muck Rack profile at https://muckrack.com/media-outlet/vcij ↩︎