内容来源：https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/09/25/1124088/shoplifters-could-soon-be-chased-down-by-drones/

内容总结：

【商业安保新动向：无人机或将加入零售业防盗追踪】

近日，美国安保技术公司Flock Safety宣布将其原为警方设计的无人机监控系统向私营企业开放，旨在为购物中心、仓库、医院等场所提供空中巡逻服务。该公司表示，企业可在物业内部署无人机基站，若获得美国联邦航空管理局（FAA）超视距飞行许可，安保人员即可在数公里半径内远程操控无人机应对突发情况。

据项目负责人、前警长基思·考夫曼介绍，该系统运作流程如下：当门店安保人员发现盗窃者离开时，可一键启动屋顶无人机进行追踪。无人机通过摄像头锁定目标车辆并持续跟随，实时画面既可传回企业安保中心，也可直接同步至警方。考夫曼称，此举将传统报警响应升级为"空中即时追踪"。

目前Flock正与多家大型零售商洽谈合作，但尚未签订正式合同。除零售业外，公司计划向工业园区、能源设施等领域推广该技术。值得注意的是，FAA正在制定新的无人机超视距飞行规则，现行方案能否通过审批仍存变数。

此次商业扩张背后，是美国警方近年将无人机作为"第一响应者"的趋势延伸。尽管无人机曾在科罗拉多州荒野救援等案例中发挥作用，但其引发的隐私争议持续发酵。美国公民自由联盟隐私策略师丽贝卡·威廉姆斯指出，政府机构本应通过许可令获取的私人数据，如今可能通过商业合作间接取得，这种"第四修正案保护被侵蚀"的现状令人担忧。

随着AI监控技术快速渗透日常生活，如何在安全效率与公民权利间取得平衡，将成为亟待解决的社会命题。

中文翻译：

商店窃贼或将面临无人机追捕
安全科技公司Flock Safety正向私营企业推广警用级无人机安防方案。这意味着购物中心、仓库及医院等场所可能即将引入空中监控系统。

该公司日前宣布，此前专供警用部门的无人机安防系统现面向私营领域开放，目标客户包括希望遏制店铺盗窃的企业。目前美国企业可在其物业内部署Flock的无人机停机坪。若企业获得联邦航空管理局的超视距飞行许可（此类审批正逐渐放宽），安保团队便能在数英里半径范围内操控无人机执行任务。

“不同于触发无人机出动的911报警电话，这将转为警报直连模式。”曾任警长、现负责Flock无人机项目的基思·考夫曼解释道，“但应急响应机制的本质并未改变。”

考夫曼以零售盗窃为例演示安防流程：当像家得宝这类店铺的安保人员发现窃贼离店时，可立即启动屋顶停机坪上配备摄像头的无人机进行追踪。“无人机锁定目标人员，待其上车后，操作员只需轻点按钮，便能对车辆进行持续空中跟踪。”

无人机拍摄的画面既可传输至企业安保中心，也能直接实时同步至警方系统。该公司透露正与多家大型零售商洽谈合作，但目前尚未签订正式协议。考夫曼唯一公开的私营客户是加州番茄加工企业晨星公司，该公司利用无人机守护其物流设施。Flock还将向医疗园区、仓储基地及油气设施推广该方案。

值得关注的是，联邦航空管理局正在制定新的超视距无人机飞行准则，现有方案是否符合即将出台的监管要求尚属未知。此次业务扩张恰逢全美警局兴起“无人机第一响应者”计划，执法部门通过无人机率先抵达现场传输画面，比警员更快掌握实况。

Flock被视为该领域的推动者，警方曾借助其技术成功向科罗拉多荒野迷途少年空投物资。但此类项目也引发隐私泄露、少数族裔社区过度监管等争议，甚至有诉讼指控警方拒绝公开无人机录像侵犯公众知情权。

Flock提供的车牌识别等技术近期也遭诟病——在特朗普政府大规模驱逐非法移民期间，ICE、CBP等联邦机构可轻易获取地方警局采集的数据。美国公民自由联盟隐私与数据治理高级策略师丽贝卡·威廉姆斯指出，Flock进军私营安防领域是“合乎逻辑却危险的转向”。

威廉姆斯强调，数字时代下宪法第四修正案对非法搜查的保障正持续弱化，政府可通过采购规避搜查令获取私人数据。虽然相关立法提案已被搁置，但Flock的扩张将使问题加剧。“Flock已成为监控技术领域的Meta（元宇宙平台）。”她警示道，“这种商业扩张令人深感不安。”

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英文来源：

Shoplifters could soon be chased down by drones
Flock Safety is pitching its police-style drone program to private businesses. It could bring aerial surveillance to shopping centers, warehouses, and hospitals.
Flock Safety, whose drones were once reserved for police departments, is now offering them for private-sector security, the company announced today, with potential customers including including businesses intent on curbing shoplifting.
Companies in the US can now place Flock’s drone docking stations on their premises. If the company has a waiver from the Federal Aviation Administration to fly beyond visual line of sight (these are becoming easier to get), its security team can fly the drones within a certain radius, often a few miles.
“Instead of a 911 call [that triggers the drone], it’s an alarm call,” says Keith Kauffman, a former police chief who now directs Flock’s drone program. “It’s still the same type of response.”
Kauffman walked through how the drone program might work in the case of retail theft: If the security team at a store like Home Depot, for example, saw shoplifters leave the store, then the drone, equipped with cameras, could be activated from its docking station on the roof.
“The drone follows the people. The people get in a car. You click a button,” he says, “and you track the vehicle with the drone, and the drone just follows the car.”
The video feed of that drone might go to the company’s security team, but it could also be automatically transmitted directly to police departments.
The company says it’s in talks with large retailers but doesn’t yet have any signed contracts. The only private-sector company Kauffman named as a customer is Morning Star, a California tomato processor that uses drones to secure its distribution facilities. Flock will also pitch the drones to hospital campuses, warehouse sites, and oil and gas facilities.
It’s worth noting that the FAA is currently drafting new rules for how it grants approval to pilots flying drones out of sight, and it’s not clear if Flock’s use case would be allowed under the currently proposed guidance.
The company’s expansion to the private sector follows the rise of programs launched by police departments around the country to deploy drones as first responders. In such programs, law enforcement sends drones to a scene to provide visuals faster than an officer can get there.
Flock has arguably led this push, and police departments have claimed drone-enabled successes, like a supply drop to a boy lost in the Colorado wilderness. But the programs have also sparked privacy worries, concerns about overpolicing in minority neighborhoods, and lawsuits charging that police departments should not block public access to drone footage.
Other technologies Flock offers, like license plate readers, have drawn recent criticism for the ease with which federal US immigration agencies, including ICE and CBP, could look at data collected by local police departments amid President Trump’s mass deportation efforts.
Flock’s expansion into private-sector security is “a logical step, but in the wrong direction,” says Rebecca Williams, senior strategist for the ACLU’s privacy and data governance unit.
Williams cited a growing erosion of Fourth Amendment protections—which prevent unlawful search and seizure—in the online era, in which the government can purchase private data that it would otherwise need a warrant to acquire. Proposed legislation to curb that practice has stalled, and Flock’s expansion into the private sector would exacerbate the issue, Williams says.
“Flock is the Meta of surveillance technology now,” Williams says, referring to the amount of personal data that company has acquired and monetized. “This expansion is very scary.”
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