Flock Mandates Abuse-Detection Tool Amid Stalker Cop Scandals
AI-generated image · Bay Street Wire
The surveillance giant is requiring agencies to use a safety tool to block officers who stalk acquaintances, but critics argue the move fails to address systemic police accountability.
Flock is now requiring all law enforcement agencies using its license plate reader data to implement a safety tool designed to automatically detect abnormal activity and lock out officers who use the system to stalk people in their personal lives, as Ars Technica first reported.
Flock CEO Garrett Langley admitted to The Verge that the company previously erred by making the tool optional, stating, "we got this one wrong." The shift comes after a Georgia sheriff's office used the tool to identify and arrest three officers who were separately using cameras to stalk acquaintances. While the tool suspends access based on "defined criteria for abnormal behavior" until an administrator reviews the account, the ACLU warns there is no evidence the tool works consistently or that it is more than "window dressing."
Experts cited by Ars Technica argue that technical fixes cannot solve the underlying issue of police accountability. Former San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin told SFGate that the decision to discipline officers remains with local agencies, which may lack the motivation to take corrective action or may "sweep it under the rug."
Further vulnerabilities exist regarding a requirement for officers to provide case numbers for searches. Saira Hussain, a senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told SFGate that a "motivated bad actor" could simply lie about a case number to bypass the audit tool. The ACLU added that this requirement, which rolled out in July 2025, was previously optional and appeared ineffective.
According to the New York Times, Flock is currently utilized by 7,000 law enforcement agencies across every U.S. state except Alaska, representing approximately 40 percent of all U.S. police departments.