Flock Safety announced it will require new anti-abuse safeguards across its license-plate-reader network following investigations that found widespread police misuse, including allegations of officers using the system for personal surveillance, according to a August 13 report.
Under the new mandates, officers must tie every vehicle search to a specific criminal case and offense type. Flock Safety will also deploy its automated auditing system to all law-enforcement customers to flag unusual searches, a feature previously enabled by only about one-third of agencies using the platform.
The reforms follow reports of officers using plate-reader systems to track romantic interests. The Washington Post identified at least 50 officers accused, charged, or convicted of misusing Flock or other plate-reader systems, including tracking girlfriends and ex-wives, with more than a dozen additional cases later confirmed. Recent allegations have also surfaced in Arizona, Georgia, and North Carolina.
Flock Safety is also reducing the default vehicle-location data retention period from 30 days to seven days. Agencies may preserve information for active investigations through a new Evidence Mode and may adopt longer retention periods if approved by a governing body.
Additionally, police departments will gain more control over cross-agency searches. Agencies will be able to specify which categories of investigations outside their departments can use their camera data, such as allowing searches for kidnapping or homicide while blocking searches related to immigration enforcement.
CEO Garrett Langley stated the company expected state and local governments to mandate stronger controls themselves but decided to act faster. The Flock Safety network includes approximately 120,000 cameras and produces about 20 billion plate scans per month.
Critics and civil-liberties experts have welcomed measures like shorter retention and case-number requirements, but they argue that protections should be imposed by law rather than by a private vendor. Some have questioned if AI-based auditing can reliably detect misconduct or substitute for independent human oversight.
The announcement follows political and public backlash against automated plate readers. This year, more than 50 agencies or jurisdictions have reportedly canceled, suspended, rejected, or deactivated Flock deployments amid concerns regarding mass surveillance and the Fourth Amendment.
