Surveillance tech firm Flock is tightening its rules after reports that police misused its tools to stalk former partners and others. CEO Garrett Langley admitted the company got oversight wrong and is now changing course.
Flock makes automatic license plate readers, or ALPRs, used by police across the United States. Reports showed some officers ran searches on the system to track people for personal reasons. The abuse hit people like ex-romantic partners who had no idea they were being watched.
Langley told The Verge he now accepts more responsibility for how police use Flock’s data. For years the company argued lawmakers should set the rules. Little regulation arrived, so Flock is acting on its own.
The changes roll out over the coming weeks. A feature called Audit Assistance, which was optional, now becomes mandatory. It flags abnormal search behavior and locks out suspicious users until an administrator reviews the activity.
Every user must now enter a case code to run a search. The goal is to block personal or harmful queries. An administrator can override the code for emergencies, like finding a missing child. Those overrides are automatically flagged for review.
Flock is also cutting its default data retention. The company will keep license plate data for seven days instead of 30. Less stored data means less opportunity for misuse.
“This is such an obvious way to curb abuse,” Langley said. “And I said, ‘Fine. You know what? I think that’s right, and we got this one wrong. We should make it a requirement.'”
The move marks a shift for a company critics say helped build AI policing tools without enough guardrails. It comes as regulators weigh new rules for AI and surveillance systems.
Source: The Verge. Related reading: California’s 30 AI bills face a make-or-break vote and The EU AI Act one year on.
