Flock camera scandals prompt company to make changes

Key Points:

• Flock Safety, a leading license plate reader company, announced new measures to prevent police officers from misusing its data, requiring officers to provide case codes and offense types for every vehicle search and implementing mandatory audit tools to flag abnormal searches.
• The company's cameras are used by over 6,000 law enforcement agencies across 49 states, helping solve thousands of cases, but have faced criticism and protests over privacy concerns and allegations of misuse by officers for personal reasons.
• Several incidents of police misuse have been reported, including officers using the system to stalk or harass individuals, leading to investigations, arrests, and contract cancellations in multiple states such as Georgia, Arizona, and North Carolina.
• Flock Safety will reduce data retention from 30 days to seven days unless linked to ongoing cases and allow departments to control which case types other agencies can search for, aiming to enhance privacy protections.
• CEO Garrett Langley emphasized that misuse of law enforcement tools is a longstanding issue and called for legal safeguards across all police databases, asserting that technology can support both safety and privacy without compromise.