Flock boss admits surveillance firm took too long to act over police abuse
Flock CEO Garrett Langley tells BBC the surveillance company should have moved faster to stop police from misusing its technology to track romantic partners and strangers.
Stock photo for illustration only, not from the actual event
- Flock CEO Garrett Langley admits the firm was too slow in addressing police technology misuse.
- The company is cutting data retention from 30 days to seven and introducing automated anomaly flagging.
- Police used the system to track former partners and even a woman who had undergone an abortion.
- At least 50 US cities have cut ties with Flock this year amid growing public backlash.
Garrett Langley, the founder and chief executive of US surveillance firm Flock, has openly admitted that his company took too long to implement safeguards against police misuse of its technology. The firm's products, which include license plate readers, drones, and tens of thousands of cameras, have faced mounting public scrutiny after law enforcement officers used them to stalk strangers and track romantic partners, while their intended uses include locating missing persons and stolen vehicles.
When asked directly by the BBC if it took the company too long to protect its camera network from being abused by law enforcement, Langley replied, "Yeah... yes." In response to the growing crisis, Flock is reducing its data retention period for most information from 30 days down to seven days, alongside the rollout of an automated system designed to flag abnormal searches and usage patterns.
Flock cameras have been exploited by police not just for monitoring current or former partners, but in one documented instance, to track a woman who had recently received an abortion. Across the United States, multiple officers have either resigned or been fired due to such misconduct. Additionally, a resident in Indiana recently discovered via public records request that local police had established a Flock alert for his vehicle even though he was under no suspicion of wrongdoing, leading at least 50 cities to sever ties with the company this year.
Stock photo for illustration only, not from the actual event
"Yeah... yes."
Garrett Langley
Despite the backlash, Langley told the BBC that 16 cities that previously deactivated Flock services have returned as customers over the past three months, maintaining a roughly 7-to-1 ratio of new customers to lost ones. He recalled asking during a board meeting six months ago why public focus on the company was intensifying, a period that coincided with Amazon-owned Ring dropping a partnership with Flock following public outcry over a Super Bowl advertisement that raised surveillance concerns.
The controversy surrounding Flock highlights a broader regulatory vacuum in the United States, where no comprehensive federal legislation governs the collection and sale of personal data. As private surveillance networks expand into public spaces, balancing law enforcement utility with fundamental privacy rights remains a critical societal challenge that technology providers and regulators must address.
Langley stated that he now agrees with civil liberties groups like the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, believing that police should require an active case number before searching Flock's database. While continuing to pitch his technology as an essential crime-fighting tool in the US, Langley acknowledged that officers who abuse their positions are horrible and deserve punishments beyond mere dismissal.
Source: BBC Business
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