Flock Acknowledges Mistakes That Endangered Innocent Individuals, Revamps Police Search Regulations

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      On Thursday, Garrett Langley, the Founder and CEO of Flock Safety, acknowledged police misuse of Flock’s services and stated, “I’m sorry the system has failed you.”

      Flock addressed the incident involving my wife and me, where we were surrounded by police who mistakenly believed I had committed grand theft auto with a $155k Range Rover. This was due to the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department entering a partial license plate into the National Criminal Information Center database, leading to alerts from Flock cameras. In a press release, Flock explained, “A recent incident involved a wrongful traffic stop concerning an auto journalist. The key takeaway is straightforward: an alert should be seen as a lead, not a conclusion, and must be confirmed by an officer.” The emphasis was theirs, not ours. While avoiding accountability and shifting it to law enforcement, Langley announced significant changes.

      Langley stated that Flock will implement new mandatory audit monitoring to identify unusual activity and repeated queries. Furthermore, all searches using Flock’s system will now require case codes for law enforcement to justify their searches, except in emergencies, which will still be evaluated.

      According to Flock, users who conduct unusual searches, likely characterized by repeated patterns, will be locked out of the system pending a review by an administrator.

      Additionally, Flock will reduce its default data retention period to seven days, which previously varied from state to state in accordance with local regulations. Some states permitted data retention for only 7 or 21 days, while others allowed for 30 or even up to 100 days.

      Importantly, the new seven-day retention period is now the default suggestion. Flock stated that “Existing customers will maintain their current, democratically approved retention periods.”

      Langley mentioned, “Historically, I felt uncertain as a chief executive of a private company about whether I should make these decisions. I questioned whether it was my role to dictate how long data should be kept.”

      The BBC reported that he subsequently aligned with organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which argue that police should require an active case number to access Flock’s data. Langley acknowledged, “They’re right. I think it should be required.”

      Langley conveyed to CNN, “What’s changed for me is realizing that we have a responsibility, perhaps even an obligation, to the communities we serve to set the standard.”

      Flock also announced it will launch a new Offense Filtering feature, allowing cities to select which types of offenses can be accessed by other agencies through their cameras.

      Langley affirmed, “We are not perfect, so we will continue listening, improving, and working together to establish a better standard for public safety technology." He indicated that these changes will be rolled out in the upcoming weeks and months.

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