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.
Twice in the last five years, Apple hosted behind-closed-doors conferences for police agencies from across the world, bringing cops together at the tech giant’s Cupertino headquarters to discuss the best ways to use its products, Forbes has learned.
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).
There’s a widespread perception that Apple has a combative relationship with law enforcement after the company refused to help the FBI hack into the iPhone of the shooter in the 2015 San Bernardino terrorist attacks. 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.