AI Wearing the Badge Now?

Police work in America is starting to look less like “Law & Order” and more like “Black Mirror.” Startups like Flock Safety, Cellebrite, and Palantir are stuffing AI into cameras, license plate readers, and even drones, promising faster investigations, crime prediction, and safer neighborhoods.

Translation: the paperwork cops used to hate? Now outsourced to robots. The bodycam footage that took hours to watch? Now chewed up in seconds. The patrol strategy? Suggested by an algorithm that probably also knows when you’ll forget your umbrella.

Flock Safety is the loudmouth here, claiming it can help “end crime in 10 years.” That’s bold, like your buddy announcing he’ll “quit drinking next Monday.” Meanwhile, Motorola Solutions, the granddaddy of police tech, is still peddling radios and plate readers like it’s 1999.

They’re the Blockbuster in a Netflix world, clutching their DVDs while Flock is already streaming crime alerts in 4K. And Rekor? Oh, Rekor thought it was going to be the disruptor. Then Flock showed up with billions in funding, shinier gadgets, and louder marketing. Rekor is now the kid who brought a butter knife to a lightsaber duel.

Here’s where it gets tricky. Predictive AI tools are being used in places like Los Angeles to decide where police patrols should go, kind of like Waze for crime. But instead of telling you to “avoid traffic,” it’s basically saying, “avoid being robbed here.” Sounds useful, until you realize the same tech might think your block party looks like a gang meetup because someone grilled too aggressively.

The gadgets are equally wild. Cameras that don’t just film but actually shout “suspicious!” when they see a weird movement. Drones that show up to crime scenes before officers, buzzing around like tattletale mosquitoes. License plate readers that don’t just scan, they gossip, instantly alerting cops if your car’s been naughty. Basically, Big Brother just got an AI sidekick with better eyesight.

Why should you care? Because this isn’t just about cops. CEOs should be asking, “If AI can write crime reports, what’s it going to do to my finance team?” Managers should wonder, “If drones are replacing patrol cars, what happens when bots start replacing my analysts?” Everyday Americans should be asking, “Am I safer now… or just more watched than a Netflix password sharer?”

At the end of the day, this is the fight to decide who gets to play RoboCop. Flock Safety is strutting in with Silicon Valley swagger, Motorola looks like it’s still figuring out how to work Bluetooth, and Rekor is trying not to get completely forgotten. The winner won’t just shape policing; it’ll shape how much of your daily life is decided by machines. So the real question is: are we building safer streets… or just creating neighborhoods where the cameras know more about you than your neighbors?

- Matt Masinga