Flock announces security changes after dozens of reports of law enforcement abuse and public backlash
Flock Safety -- a tech surveillance firm that makes AI-enabled cameras that scans and collects license plate information -- announced new guardrails Thursday after multiple reports of abuse by law enforcement and amid growing public backlash over mass surveillance technology.
The new safeguards include requiring law enforcement to label every search with a with a criminal case number, and instituting an automatic review for abnormal search activities, which will trigger proactive lockouts for those users.
The company also said it will introduce a seven-day data retention default instead of the past default of 30 days.
Data from Flock's 120,000 cameras across the U.S. can be shared by police departments with other agencies throughout the country, but now, cities can choose the type of offenses other agencies can access through their cameras.
"For example, City A could allow City B to search its cameras only for a stolen vehicle, missing person, or violent crime while blocking searches related to immigration enforcement," Flock CEO Garrett Langley, wrote in a blog post announcing the new safety controls on the company’s website.
"These changes reflect years of work and deliberation. They are not the end of that work, but simply the continuation of our commitment to both safety and privacy," Langley wrote. "We are not perfect, so we will keep listening, improving, and building a better standard for public safety technology together."
In the past several weeks, reports of law enforcement using the Flock system for alleged crimes and misconduct have brought increased scrutiny on the company.
Last week, The Washington Post reported that at least 50 officers had been accused, charged or convicted of using Flock’s system and other license-plate readers to spy on the unsuspecting -- in many cases stalking their girlfriends or former partners. After the investigation was published, The Post said it has confirmed more than a dozen additional cases. Two safeguards suggested in the Post story were included in the newly announced safeguards.
“I've learned a lot in nine years of building Flock Safety. Some of it from our customers, and some of it from the communities they serve. Today we’re announcing the changes that came from listening. A new standard for privacy, security, and accountability in public safety technology,” Langley wrote.
The company boasted that a tool, Audit Assistance, introduced 16 weeks ago, which detects abnormal activity and flags it for review has “been associated with arrests of several law enforcement officers who allegedly abused the system,” Langley wrote.
About one third of its customers had adopted that safeguard, which will now become mandatory by year’s end.
Still, some civil rights advocates say these measures fall short.
"While this measure contains some meaningful improvements, such as the shortened retention policy, ultimately it is the same 'Just Trust Us' policy with a fresh coat of paint," Tom Bowman, policy counsel for the Center for Democracy & Technology, said in a statement to ABC News Thursday. "Flock is still asking thousands of police departments to police themselves, despite evidence from across the U.S. that this lack of guardrails is unsafe."
He continued, "The changes do not ward off the demonstrated dangers of ALPRS, which include pervasive tracking, vehicle stops based on flawed AI flags of 'irregular' driving patterns, and abuse such as stalking. The fix that will actually stop the threats Flock and other ALPRs pose is the same one American privacy law has always relied on: make the government get a warrant."
Flock cameras have become shorthand for automated license plate readers (ALPRs), which are marketed as tools to catch car thieves and finding missing people, although other companies also make them.
“Companies like Flock Safety have now blanketed thousands of communities with ALPRs, quietly assembling powerful mass surveillance systems that can reconstruct where people have been, when, and how often, all without a warrant,” contends the libertarian non-profit law firm Institute for Justice (IJ), which launched a database documenting ALPR abuse on Tuesday. “This dragnet surveillance threatens the freedoms the Fourth Amendment was adopted to protect. These concerns aren’t just abstractions: every day, innocent people are harmed by officials’ abuse and misuse of these ALPRs.”
The Institute for Justice says it has identified more than 100 incidents of ALPR abuse, including stalking, wrongful stops and detentions, non-law enforcement use.
Langley also said the company had fixed a glitch discovered in December 2025, in which some of its AI-powered PTZ cameras were accessible to the public. “For a brief period of time, third parties were able to access live streams and footage from those cameras,” which he blamed on a network configuration era by a vendor, but said “we are accountable.”
Earlier this month, a North Carolina police officer was arrested for allegedly using Flock license plate readers to track her boyfriend's ex-wife, according to police.
In Savannah, Georgia, six police department employees were fired in August over alleged misuse of Flock cameras, according to Savannah ABC affiliate WJCL.
