Experts Warn AI-Powered Real-Time Crime Centers Outpace Flock in Surveillance Reach

Hundreds of police departments have real-time crime centers, which have existed for years. Many are now being powered with AI software, such as Fusus, from the public-safety technology giant Axon. Axon describes Fusus as a "rapidly deployable real-time crime center in the cloud." The software functions like the brain of a crime center, synthesizing the data it pulls in and allowing police command centers to watch an entire city from one place.

Flock cameras, the automated license plate readers, have faced intense backlash in recent months amid stories of abuse. Yet privacy experts say they are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to police surveillance. "I have been watching the debate about Flock with a little bit of puzzlement," said Andrew Guthrie Ferguson, a law professor at George Washington University. He said real-time crime centers have not just ALPR cameras and sensors, but video analytics and drones, and essentially a way to create a visual single-pane-of-glass vision of what is going on in a city, with time machine capabilities to go back and investigate crime.

Tools like Axon Fusus, which is a leader in this type of software, also pull in footage and data from police body cameras, law enforcement dashcams, 911 dispatch, gunshot detectors and surveillance cameras, including sometimes those of private businesses that opt in.

Its use is growing fast. In 2024, the technology news site 404 Media reported that just over 100 law enforcement agencies had deployed Fusus, which was then its own company and was acquired by Axon that year. The number of law enforcement agencies using the tool has more than doubled since then, according to Axon.

Police officers in departments that use Fusus told NPR that the tool serves as a time-saver and a force multiplier. "We could put analysts in a room and have them access 40 different systems," said Benjamin Weir, a captain with the Oklahoma City Police Department. "But that slows them down. So the biggest leveraging factor for a real-time information center to be productive is to have software that can incorporate all these things into one usable area." Quincy Whitner, a lieutenant with the Greenville County Sheriff's Office in South Carolina, said Fusus helped his department find a man who shot a police officer and fled the scene by combining city surveillance footage with license plate data. "Instead of having to go to a million different systems, a million different places to find answers, we can get it in one platform in one place somewhat instantaneously," Whitner said.

But that push-of-a-button mentality is exactly what makes privacy experts nervous. Rachel Levinson-Waldman, director of the Liberty and National Security Program at New York University's Brennan Center for Justice, said that even a few decades ago there were more hurdles to overcome when police officers wanted to surveil members of the community. They might have to physically follow someone or do a stakeout, which took time, staffing and resources. "In addition to all of the things that you would want in place requiring some kind of criminal predicate to launch it, there is just this kind of organic friction that imposes some constraints," she said. As that friction gets lifted, she said, it becomes easier and easier to do investigations, to look at people and even to pull up broad-scale information.

Police told NPR they understand those concerns but that the good — the potential for stopping and solving crime — outweighs the bad — the potential for misuse and mass surveillance. "I understand people's concerns, but if you're not up to no good, we're not looking at you. We are looking at people who are committing crimes," said Michelle Iezzi, deputy director of the Operational Intelligence Division at the Montgomery County Police Department in Maryland.

Axon did not respond to multiple requests for comment. But CEO Rick Smith said on the latest earnings call that the company strongly values privacy: "We just have to be thoughtful and understand those concerns and say, 'Look, this is a tool to amplify human ability, not to replace human judgment.'"

Privacy experts say there is broad potential for abuse when a police department is always watching. Surveillance technology can sweep up innocent people by mistake, and it can enable targeting.