Flock Mandates Anti-Stalking Tools Amid Police Abuse Concerns

Flock is now requiring all law enforcement agencies using its license plate reader data to implement a safety tool designed to 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 told The Verge that the company realized it made a mistake by previously making the tool optional, noting that dozens of incidents of abuse occurred. The decision follows a case in Georgia where a sheriff's office used the tool to arrest three officers for stalking acquaintances. The audit assistance tool suspends user access based on defined criteria for abnormal behavior, and access can only be restored via administrator review.

Despite these changes, the ACLU told Ars Technica that there is no evidence the tool works consistently and called for an independent evaluator. The ACLU further noted that without transparency regarding the number of officers misusing the system, the public cannot know if the tool is a genuine security measure or merely "window dressing."

Other critics argue the technical fixes are insufficient. Saira Hussain, a senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told SFGate that officers could easily bypass the system's case number requirement by lying, meaning Flock cannot "tech its way out" of the problem. Former San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin told SFGate that accountability ultimately rests with local agencies, which may lack the political will to discipline officers or may sweep misconduct under the rug.

The scale of the issue is significant; the New York Times reported that Flock is utilized by 7,000 law enforcement agencies across every U.S. state except Alaska, representing roughly 40 percent of all U.S. police departments.