ATLANTA, September 24 — Flock Safety, the Atlanta-based operator of a nationwide network of automated license plate reader cameras, has changed how police can search its database. Officers will now have to give a documented, specific reason before querying the system, the company says, a shift that follows years of criticism from civil liberties groups and academic researchers. The technical reality is straightforward enough.
Flock’s cameras use machine learning to read vehicle make, model, colour and plate, and the network retains those sightings for 30 days. The company says its cameras captured more than 10 billion vehicle detections in 2023 alone, and that they are deployed in more than 5,000 communities across the United States.
What changes, and for whom
Under the previous system, agencies that contracted with Flock could search the database for any reason. Reporting by the Electronic Frontier Foundation and other organisations documented searches tied to immigration enforcement, abortion-related investigations and other non-criminal matters. The new policy requires officers to select a specific reason code before running a search, and to record that reason in an audit log.
Flock says the change is part of an ongoing effort to balance public safety benefits with privacy concerns. The company says it will also begin requiring agencies to agree to new terms of service that prohibit using the system for immigration enforcement or to track people seeking abortions.
How the company will enforce those rules is unclear. Critics point out that the audit logs are not publicly accessible, which leaves the documentation of each search inside the company and the contracting agency rather than in the open.
The wider fight over police surveillance
The policy shift lands in the middle of a broader national argument about police technology. After the killing of George Floyd in 2020 and the protests that followed, cities including San Francisco, Seattle and Cambridge, Massachusetts, passed ordinances restricting or banning facial recognition and other surveillance tools. In 2023 the EFF published a report documenting how Flock’s cameras were used to track protesters and immigrants.
The American Civil Liberties Union has also raised concerns about the potential for abuse. Flock Safety was founded in 2017 by Garrett Langley, who serves as CEO.
The network has grown rapidly since then, and the company has raised over $380 million in venture funding, with investors including Andreessen Horowitz and Tiger Global Management. Its valuation was reported at $3.5 billion in 2022. The change is effective immediately for new customers and will be rolled out to existing customers over the coming months, according to the company.
What to watch next is the enforcement question. A reason code is only as good as the audit behind it, and with the logs closed to public view, the detail that matters is whether anyone outside Flock and its client agencies ever gets to check them.
