Flock tightens license plate reader access after backlash

Flock is changing access rules for its nationwide license plate reader network amid criticism over mass surveillance, police misuse, and lost municipal contracts. The company’s 120,000 cameras give police departments searchable location data, and a Washington Post investigation found 46 cases in which officers were accused of unauthorized uses such as stalking.

Officers will now be required to enter a criminal case number before running a search, a safeguard introduced as optional last year. Flock is also making automatic auditing mandatory to flag suspicious search patterns to administrators, but it has not disclosed accuracy details or opened the tool to independent evaluators. Civil liberties groups warn that officers could still bypass the case-number rule because Flock will not verify the entries.

The company is also recommending that agencies retain data for seven days rather than 30, while still allowing departments to overrule that setting. Departments can restrict searches of their camera data by stated purpose, such as allowing kidnapping investigations while blocking immigration enforcement, though that relies on officers accurately describing searches.

The backlash has broadened across political and civil liberties circles. NPR found in February that at least 30 cities had dropped Flock in the last year, while Flock says cancellations are small relative to the 5,000 agencies that have contracted with it. CEO Garrett Langley blamed misinformation, while ACLU counsel Chad Marlow said the core issue is the scale of warrantless surveillance.