Flock Safety to tighten surveillance rules, audit checks following backlash
FILE - An aerial view of a Flock Safety camera mounted to a light pole on August 03, 2026 in Burbank, California. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Flock Safety announced its making changes to its platform after drawing criticism over privacy concerns and abusing the systems.
The company shared it was making changes on Thursday following backlash over privacy concerns and documented cases of law enforcement abusing the system.
Mandatory guardrails
Dig deeper:
Product changes will make what were once optional guardrails mandatory for its users to implement by Jan. 1, according to Flock CEO Garrett Langley.
One of the changes will be requiring all law enforcement customers to implement an audit tool that’s intended to flag abnormal search behavior.
Flock is also shortening the standard data retention window from 30 days to seven. It said it will allow data to be preserved for longer when it is evidence tied to a case number.
Law enforcement users will now also be required to enter a code from their records management system tying each search to a specific case before it is run. Overrides for emergencies would be automatically flagged for review, the company said.
Customers will also be allowed to decide which offense types — such as homicide or arson — outside agencies can search their data for, which would allow a customer to block outside searches related to immigration enforcement, the company said.
Flock faces backlash
Big picture view:
Flock has been used to help find missing seniors, catch car thieves, and provide evidence in high-profile criminal cases.
One example was the fatal Brown University shooting in 2025.
The other side:
Despite its successes, more than 50 agencies or jurisdictions have canceled, suspended or rejected a contract or deactivated their cameras since the beginning of the year, according to a tracker maintained by DeFlock, a grassroots group formed to track the use of license plate reader technology and push back against it. Cameras around the country have also been vandalized.
Abuses have also drawn widespread attention. The Washington Post reported earlier this month finding nearly 50 instances of police officers charged or accused of using the cameras for unauthorized purposes, many for tracking current or former romantic partners or family members.
Local perspective:
In Coweta County, Georgia, three employees with the sheriff’s department resigned after an internal audit flagged their misuse of Flock’s camera system.
In North Carolina, an officer was arrested and charged after it was found that she used Flock to track her boyfriend's ex-wife.
What is Flock?
Flock is a surveillance technology company based in Atlanta, Georgia, that operates a vast nationwide network of cameras that record license plate numbers and other characteristics of passing vehicles everyday.
The Source: Information for this article was taken from The Associated Press and previous reporting by FOX 5 Atlanta and LiveNOW from FOX. This story was reported from San Jose.