Flock Safety, a prominent provider of license plate reader technology, has announced new policy changes aimed at curbing misuse of its systems by law enforcement. The updates come amidst increasing scrutiny and reports of officers exploiting the technology for personal reasons.
Effective immediately, all Flock Safety customers will be required to adopt an expanded "Audit Assistance" feature by the end of the year. This system is designed to detect and flag unusual activity within departments using the technology. If suspicious activity is identified, the user's account will be automatically suspended pending a review.
Additionally, officers conducting searches will now be mandated to input a case code linked to an ongoing investigation. This feature, which was previously optional since its rollout in July 2025, can be bypassed only in emergency situations.
These changes follow a series of incidents involving officers misusing Flock's license plate readers. Earlier this week, a police officer in New Bedford, Massachusetts, was accused in court of using the technology to stalk an ex-girlfriend. Separately, three sheriff’s deputies in Georgia were arrested for similar offenses. A recent investigation revealed that at least 50 law enforcement officers nationwide have been charged with misusing Flock's tools.
The company also stated that clients can now limit the circumstances under which they share data from their cameras with other agencies. For example, a department could permit access to its database for a missing person investigation but restrict it for immigration enforcement purposes. However, it remains unclear how the system would prevent an officer from circumventing this by misrepresenting the reason for a search. Critics note that a similar measure in the past was easily bypassed by users.
Flock Safety also proposes to reduce the default data retention period for license plate searches from 30 days to seven days, except in cases where the data is retained as evidence in an investigation.
Founded ten years ago in Atlanta, Georgia, Flock Safety has established a network of approximately 120,000 license plate readers through contracts with over 7,000 organizations across the United States. The widespread deployment of its surveillance technology has drawn significant opposition from civil liberties groups and individuals concerned about privacy erosion. This backlash has led to the cancellation of contracts in several cities, including Los Angeles, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Eugene, Oregon.
