Flock Safety mandates abuse-prevention tools after 50-plus officers accused of misusing surveillance cameras

New mandatory safeguards

Flock Safety, the Atlanta-based company operating a network of 120,000 license plate cameras used by 7,000 law enforcement agencies across the United States, announced on Thursday a package of privacy and abuse-prevention measures. The company conducts about 20 billion license plate scans every month. CEO Garrett Langley said the updates follow years of reports that officers misused the system to stalk ex-partners, track romantic partners, and in one case monitor a woman who had an abortion. More than 50 law enforcement officers have been accused of or charged with abusing Flock's camera system, including cameras, license plate readers, and drones. Flock-related stalking incidents by police have been reported since 2021.

The centerpiece is the Audit Assistance tool, introduced as a voluntary feature in April 2026. It flags "abnormal activity" for administrative review and automatically suspends the user pending that review. Only about a third of Flock's customers had activated it voluntarily. Langley said a single Georgia sheriff's office that used the tool subsequently arrested three officers who were separately using Flock cameras to stalk acquaintances. All law enforcement customers must now activate the tool by the end of 2026. Police officers will also be required to enter case codes to run searches, intended to limit personal queries, though an administrator can override this in certain scenarios.

This is such an obvious way to curb abuse. And I said, 'Fine. You know what? I think that's right, and we got this one wrong. We should make it a requirement.'

Data retention and sharing controls

Flock is reducing its default data retention period from 30 days to seven days. Agencies can still extend or reduce that window, and existing customers may keep their current retention periods. A new "Evidence Mode" will allow police to preserve specific ALPR data in cold storage for active investigations. The ACLU raised concerns that if Evidence Mode triggers retention of any searched data, it could indefinitely retain all collected data nationally. Flock told Gizmodo that Evidence Mode only retains hit result data that agencies determine may be evidence in an active investigation.

The company will also let individual police departments restrict what data they share with other jurisdictions. A city could allow partner agencies to access scans for stolen vehicle or missing persons cases while blocking access for immigration enforcement. Los Angeles and Dayton, Ohio, had already stopped using Flock cameras to prevent immigration authorities from accessing their data.

Critics demand legislation and transparency

Civil liberties groups and legal experts said the measures fall short. Chad Marlow, senior policy counsel at the ACLU, said reducing retention time is positive but easy for departments to override, and that a similar program rolled out last year to block impermissible searches was quickly circumvented by customers.

When you put all this together, what you see is Flock treating privacy issues as public relations issues. Flock is giving this response because it knows its company is in serious, serious trouble.

The ACLU also warned that there is no independent evidence the Audit Assistance tool works consistently, calling for an external evaluator and saying, "We don't know if the tool is a real security measure or just window dressing." Barry Friedman, a law professor and faculty director of the Policing Project at New York University, said legislative action is the ultimate solution. Former San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin told SFGate that the reforms "may not be enough."

Business impact and company response

At least 50 cities have cut ties with Flock this year amid public backlash, and some citizens have taken cameras down themselves. Langley told the BBC that 16 cities that had previously turned off Flock services returned in the last three months, and the company is running at a 7:1 ratio of new customers to lost customers. Amazon's Ring cancelled a partnership with Flock after an outcry over a Super Bowl advertisement that raised surveillance concerns. Langley said that about six months ago he asked his board why there was growing public focus on the company, and has since accepted that Flock must take a stronger stance. He had previously called a website that tracks Flock cameras "terroristic" and later apologized for that language.

Our employees and communities have said loud and clear, they expect companies like Flock to have a stronger point of view as the expert. I resisted that because I didn't want to have that responsibility.