Flock Safety CEO Garrett Langley is calling for a national “compromise” between privacy and safety as his surveillance company faces mounting criticism from politicians and civil liberties groups. In a recent interview with Fox News, Langley said that focusing on just one of those priorities is wrong, and that the country must balance both. He made the comments as Flock deals with backlash over police misuse of its license plate recognition cameras. The criticism follows a Washington Post report identifying 46 cases where officers were accused of using Flock technology for unauthorized purposes, including stalking spouses or ex-partners.
Langley responded to that reporting after hearing an interview with one of the alleged victims. He told CBS News that he apologized and that it upset him that she went through that experience. He also pushed back on the idea that Flock itself created police abuse, instead arguing that the company was the first to expose such misconduct and build tools to detect it. His statements come as both Democratic and Republican politicians have started targeting the company, similar to the bipartisan backlash seen in the data center industry.
On the political left, Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed has accused his opponent of supporting the widespread deployment of Flock cameras that watch people’s movements without their knowledge. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders has posted messages calling for a stop to AI mass surveillance and a stop to Flock. On the right, three House Republicans have introduced a bill that would ban federal agencies from buying automated surveillance systems with facial recognition, biometric identification, or license plate recognition, specifically naming Flock Safety cameras in the proposal.
Flock has already announced changes in response to the criticism. The company reduced its default data retention period from 30 days to seven days and now requires a case code before police can access data. However, both of those safeguards can be overridden, including through a setting called Evidence Mode that allows officers to save data for longer periods. The American Civil Liberties Union said in response that while the shortened retention period does not match its recommended 48 hours, the proposal might be a step in the right direction. The ACLU added that whether this is a genuine change or a public relations move will depend on how Evidence Mode operates.
Langley has suggested that state regulators should pass laws making the illegal use of Flock data a criminal offense. During his Fox News interview, he pointed to the company’s already-implemented changes while acknowledging that too often there is no regulation or accountability in Flock and other technologies, which he said is wrong. He is also scheduled to appear at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in October to discuss these issues.
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