Flock Safety CEO Garrett Langley emphasized the need to find a balance between privacy concerns and public safety. Amid criticism of surveillance systems, he stressed that the priority should be proper regulation of how law enforcement uses data collection technologies. According to company representatives, their cameras have assisted authorities in over 1,000,000 investigations and have been involved in the search for more than 10,000 missing persons.
Flock Safety's technology, based on automatic license plate recognition, has faced backlash from parts of society due to privacy threats. To date, the company has installed around 100,000 cameras across the United States. In response to public debate, American lawmakers have proposed initiatives to ban federal agencies from purchasing such automatic license plate recognition systems and biometric identifiers. Meanwhile, citizens have expressed protest sentiments: incidents of equipment damage, painting over camera lenses, and themed demonstrations have been reported in various states.
To reduce the intensity of criticism, Flock Safety has implemented a number of technical and procedural changes. The company has reduced the data retention period from 30 days to 7 days and introduced a mandatory requirement to provide a case number to access the database. Additionally, tools have been added to detect abnormal employee behavior when working with the system, and internal audit requirements have been strengthened.
Langley also advocated for the adoption of legislative norms that criminalize the illegal use of data collected by cameras. In his opinion, the industry currently lacks clear regulation and accountability mechanisms. The situation is complicated by earlier media reports about the company's testing of an AI tool capable of tracking drivers based on their routes and movement patterns, which raised further questions among human rights advocates and the public.