Flock is tightening its rules in response to a growing surveillance backlash
| Source: MIT Technology Review AI
Tags: Flock Safety, surveillance, license plate readers, police technology, privacy, AI regulation
Flock Safety is mandating criminal case numbers before license plate searches and automatic abuse audits across its 120,000-camera police network—but ACLU research shows officers already mock similar prompts, and Flock won't verify the case numbers.
Details
Flock Safety, whose cameras are deployed in thousands of US police departments forming a searchable nationwide location database, is rolling out mandatory guardrails following a Washington Post investigation finding 46 officers accused of using the system for stalking or unauthorized surveillance. Key changes: officers must now enter a criminal case number before querying the network (previously optional), and automated anomaly detection flagging suspicious search patterns is now mandatory rather than opt-in. However, the ACLU documented that when a reason-for-search prompt was required, officers entered responses like 'hehehe' 20 times at one Oregon department—suggesting case numbers face the same evasion risk, since Flock won't verify them. The automated audit tool has no published accuracy metrics and has not been independently evaluated. The company also recommends (but does not require) 7-day data retention down from 30 days. At least 30 cities dropped Flock contracts in the past year over surveillance concerns, with activist group DeFlock claiming the real number is higher.