Flock Safety Overhauls License Plate Reader Platform Amid Privacy Uproar

Flock Safety, a major provider of automated license plate readers, has announced a series of platform changes aimed at addressing growing privacy concerns and documented cases of police misuse. The Atlanta-based company, which supplies surveillance cameras to thousands of law enforcement agencies, will implement the new measures by January 1st.

Under the updated system, all law enforcement customers will be required to use an audit tool that flags abnormal search behavior. If the system detects such activity, the user will be locked out pending an internal review. The company is also reducing its standard data retention window from 30 days to seven, though data tied to a specific case number can be preserved longer.

In a significant shift, officers will now need to enter a code from their records management system, linking each search to a specific case before it is run. Emergency overrides will be automatically flagged for review. Additionally, customers will be able to decide which offense types outside agencies can search their data for, allowing departments to block searches related to immigration enforcement.

CEO Garrett Langley stated that these changes give individual cities and departments control to use the system in a manner consistent with community values. The company has long touted its technology as a crime-fighting tool, citing successes in locating missing people and tracking violent crime suspects.

However, critics remain skeptical. The American Civil Liberties Union called the shortened retention window a step in the right direction but dismissed other changes as retreads of inadequate safety measures. Robert Frommer, a senior attorney at the Institute for Justice, described the changes as window dressing from a company in panic mode, arguing that police should not be the ones deciding who and when to search.

Andrew Guthrie Ferguson, a law professor at George Washington University, noted the growing community backlash against Flock specifically, saying the movement has captured people's sense that they may not want to be surveilled all the time. More than 50 agencies or jurisdictions have canceled or suspended contracts since the beginning of the year, according to a tracker maintained by the grassroots group DeFlock.

The changes come after a series of high-profile incidents, including a recent report finding nearly 50 instances of police officers charged or accused of using cameras for unauthorized purposes, many for tracking romantic partners or family members. Just this week, six employees of the Savannah Police Department in Georgia were fired after being accused of searching for friends and family using the tool.