Amazon Courts Law Enforcement for AI & Surveillance — Investigation

Forbes and other outlets report Amazon has been actively pitching Amazon Web Services to police departments and partnering with vendors that sell surveillance and AI tools. The outreach includes partnerships or integrations with companies such as Flock Safety (car tracking/license-plate readers), ZeroEyes (gun-detection), C3 AI and Revir Technologies (real-time crime apps), and Abel Police and Mark43 (AI-assisted police reporting).

Key points

• Amazon is positioning AWS as an option for law enforcement tech and working with partners to deploy surveillance and AI products.
• Privacy advocates, including the ACLU, warn these tools can be inaccurate and easily misused, raising civil-liberty concerns.
• The police tech market is estimated at around $11 billion, and Amazon appears eager to capture part of that business.

Concerns raised

Critics say aggressive sales to police risk expanding authoritarian surveillance capabilities without adequate oversight. Regulation remains patchy and some departments have not followed existing rules on tech use.

Quote

“It’s dismaying to see one of the largest and most powerful companies pushing authoritarian surveillance tech in this way,” — ACLU Senior Policy Analyst Jay Stanley (reported in coverage of the investigation).

Sources

Main reporting: Engadget (originally republishing the investigation) — Read more on Engadget.

Other reporting and links will be attached after further sourcing.

Call to action

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