Last year, Apple hosted a “Global Police Summit” aimed at helping law enforcement agencies around the world better leverage Apple products for tasks like surveillance, according to a report from Forbes. The summit was held in October at Apple Park and coincided with the International Association of Chiefs of Police Conference. The event brought together approximately 50 law enforcement officials from seven different countries.
Apple helps the world’s law enforcement agencies
This event allowed police departments to share their “successes, innovations and lessons learned,” as described in an internal email. Apple engineers gave presentations to show how various products and features, like CarPlay, accident detection, SOS emergency calls via satellite and even the Vision Pro, could benefit law enforcement.
John McMahon, the Los Angeles Police Department’s (LAPD) chief public information officer, praised the event, calling it one of the most collaborative and useful conferences he had attended. A New Zealand police department has demonstrated an app to access and store data linked to the national intelligence database, providing an example of law enforcement using Apple technology.
Despite its public stance of refusing to unlock iPhones and its opposition to integrating backdoors for government agencies, Apple is responding to some legal requests from authorities. Which suggests that the firm still has the means to access a locked iPhone.
Matthew Guariglia, an analyst at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, suggested Forbes that Apple is keeping these conferences discreet because of the potential conflict with its image as a defender of privacy. He noted that Apple seeks to be seen as a protector of user data, while recognizing that there is significant business potential in developing technology for law enforcement.
Gary Oldham, who led Apple’s global strategy for public safety and emergency services until August 2023, told our colleagues that his efforts were aimed at increasing Apple’s market share in public safety in various regions. He has notably worked with police departments in California to encourage greater adoption of Apple technologies. Notably, some California police departments are testing the Vision Pro for surveillance operations, while police in Western Australia are using Siri via CarPlay to access police databases and send incident updates quickly.
Last interesting point, the company has not organized a Global Police Summit in 2024.
