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At Apple’s secretive Global Police Summit at its Cupertino headquarters, cops from seven countries learned how to use a host of Apple products like the iPhone, Vision Pro and CarPlay for surveillance and policing work.
Dubbed the Global Police Summit, the most recent event took place over three days in October 2023 at Apple Park. It was timed to precede the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) conference in San Diego that year, according to emails obtained by Forbes via a public records request with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department (OCSD).
But since then, it has ramped up collaboration with police through the conference and other meetings with agencies at both Cupertino HQ and its Elk Grove campus, as well as a variety of previously unreported projects helping cops use iPhones, Macs, Apple Vision Pro and CarPlay, the emails show. Most of these projects have not been announced publicly.
“I’ve been in law enforcement now for almost 36 years. I’ve never been part of an engagement that was so collaborative.” - John McMahon, LAPD deputy chief and CIO
That Apple has kept its work with cops largely under wraps indicates the company is aware that providing tech for police surveillance operations is inherently at odds with its pro-privacy marketing, said Electronic Frontier Foundation senior policy analyst Matthew Guariglia.
As many as 50 police department employees from seven countries, from Australia to Sweden, attended the events, where Apple held listening sessions with its engineers to discuss developing apps on the company’s various platforms, and cops gave presentations on using Apple technology.
Among the more memorable talks during the 2023 event was from the New Zealand Police, which outlined how it worked with a local developer to build an iOS app for storing and accessing police information, Oldham said. Called OnDuty, the app is connected to the National Intelligence Database and makes it easy to search data including locations, license plate numbers and individual criminal histories. Oldham, a former police officer, said he’d grown Apple’s public safety market share from around 10% to 70% in Apple’s targeted markets around the world. As he noted on his public LinkedIn page: “In a number of countries, I grew our share to 80% or better and achieved 100% public safety market share in four countries.” Apple’s collaboration with police appears to have been closest with nearby agencies in California, according to the emails obtained from the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.
As Forbes previously reported, Orange County Sheriff’s Department has tested out Apple’s Vision Pro VR headset to create a virtual version of its surveillance data hub, which the agency calls its Real Time Operations Center.
The LAPD is also about to start trialing Vision Pros for its surveillance work, according to public records. “A room of display monitors and a command post can all be done on a single pair of goggles,” said deputy chief McMahon. Cops have also shown an interest in Apple’s CarPlay, which turns a car’s entertainment dashboard into an iOS screen. The emails detail the LAPD, Orange County and LASD organizing a meeting with execs from car manufacturer Ford at the IACP event in October to discuss the use of CarPlay.
Police are now hoping Apple reconsiders hosting the summit. “I’m extremely disappointed that, for whatever reason, that it wasn’t able to happen again this year,” said McMahon. Even if Apple permanently cancels the event, cops remain keen to up their use of the company’s tools.