{"id":5291,"date":"2026-08-14T18:39:42","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T18:39:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=5291"},"modified":"2026-08-14T18:39:42","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T18:39:42","slug":"flock-safety-says-it-will-totally-be-better-about-not-giving-your-license-plate-to-law-enforcement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=5291","title":{"rendered":"Flock Safety says it will totally be better about (not) giving your license plate to law enforcement"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The company operates a vast nationwide\u00a0network of automated cameras\u00a0that record the license plate numbers and other characteristics of all passing vehicles every day. Thousands of law enforcement agencies in 49 states can search and share Flock\u2019s data across jurisdictions to aid their investigations.<\/p>\n

Read more Facing a decadeslong shortage, the FAA has now hired more than 2,000 air traffic controllers after its campaign recruiting Gen Z video gamers<\/a><\/p>\n

Police have credited the technology as an important crime-fighting innovation that has helped locate missing people and track suspects in violent crimes. But some critics say its pervasiveness amounts to unconstitutional warrantless mass surveillance. Dozens of cities and agencies have nixed their relationships with Flock amid concerns that the data\u00a0can be accessed\u00a0for immigration enforcement or used in unauthorized tracking, after a flurry of examples surfaced of law enforcement officers misusing the technology for personal searches.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

CEO says changes will drive accountability<\/h4>\n

In an interview, Flock CEO Garrett Langley said many of the product changes will make what were once optional guardrails mandatory for its users to implement by Jan. 1.<\/p>\n

Among them: All law enforcement customers will have to implement an audit tool that\u2019s intended to flag abnormal search behavior. When the system detects abnormal behavior, the user would be locked out pending an internal review, the company said in a description of the changes provided ahead of Thursday\u2019s announcement.<\/p>\n

Flock, which says its customers own the data that the cameras record, is also shortening the standard data retention window from 30 days to seven. It said it will allow data to be preserved for longer when it is evidence tied to a case number.<\/p>\n

Law enforcement users will now also be required to enter a code from their records management system tying each search to a specific case before it is run, something Langley said civil liberties advocates have long been calling for. Overrides for emergencies would be automatically flagged for review, the company said.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Customers will also be allowed to decide which offense types \u2014 such as homicide or arson \u2014 outside agencies can search their data for, which would allow a customer to block outside searches related to immigration enforcement, the company said.<\/p>\n

Langley said that change will give individual cities and departments control to use the system in a manner \u201cconsistent with community values.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Critics say updates still leave room for abuses, supporters urge balance<\/h4>\n

Critics of the company reacted skeptically to the changes, which they said appeared designed to address the growing bipartisan anger about the cameras but could still leave room for police to abuse the system.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The American Civil Liberties Union said in a blog post that the shortened evidence retention window could be \u201ca step in the right direction,\u201d but it characterized the other changes as \u201cretreads\u201d of inadequate safety measures.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Robert Frommer, a senior attorney at the Institute for Justice, a public interest law firm that\u2019s led closely watched litigation over the technology, called the changes \u201cwindow dressing\u201d from a company in \u201cpanic mode.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is window dressing that doesn\u2019t address the fundamental problem, which is that police officers are the ones deciding who and when to search, and that should be done by judges with real warrants,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Andrew Guthrie Ferguson, a professor at the George Washington University Law School whose scholarship has focused on policing, big data surveillance and the Fourth Amendment, said Thursday\u2019s shifts were \u201cbetter than the opposite\u201d but called for further scrutiny of the technology in the form of \u201csustained democratic engagement with the rules and judicial checks on access at a minimum.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Luigi Mangione pleads guilty in killing of UnitedHeathcare CEO. \u2018I shot Mr. Thompson in Manhattan and he died\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

Ferguson said he\u2019s been surprised to see the \u201cgrowing community backlash\u201d against Flock specifically, given that the technology isn\u2019t new and other companies sell it as well. But Flock and the movement against it have \u201ccaptured people\u2019s sense that maybe they don\u2019t want to be surveilled all the time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

More than 50 agencies or jurisdictions have canceled, suspended or rejected a contract or deactivated their cameras since the beginning of the year, according to a tracker maintained by\u00a0DeFlock, a grassroots group formed to track the use of license plate reader technology and push back against it. Cameras around the country have also been vandalized.<\/p>\n

In Congress, Republican representatives filed at least two bills aiming to restrict the use of the technology in July.<\/p>\n

Ian Adams, an associate professor of criminology at the University of South Carolina currently working on a Flock-related research study, said many of the concerns raised about how the company\u2019s data can be used are not new concerns in law enforcement.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnyone with policing experience could have reasonably foreseen that what have been termed as \u2018curiosity searches\u2019 by officers, searches for private reasons not related to police work, were going to be a problem this technology faced,\u201d he added, noting that other technologies and platforms like the FBI\u2019s Criminal Justice Information had faced those issues.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Law enforcement experts said it\u2019s a common tension of \u201cpolicing in a democracy\u201d \u2014 balancing useful technology that officers say helps solve and prevent crime with the community\u2019s interest and right to privacy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a balancing act. A community has a legitimate interest in how information is used, but it also has a legitimate interest in the effectiveness of a police department in preventing crime,\u201d said Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, a Washington-based nonpartisan think tank. \u201cI think a balance can be struck, but it\u2019s more likely to come from department policy than company changes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Successes and failures have captured attention<\/h4>\n

Flock, based in Atlanta, Georgia, often posts to its website what the company deems to be everyday examples of success stories for its cameras, including finding missing seniors and catching car thieves.<\/p>\n

But the tech has also been used in high-profile cases that have garnered national attention, such as\u00a0the search for a suspect\u00a0in a fatal shooting at Brown University and in tracking and arresting a former North Carolina police officer who authorities say had\u00a0made threats\u00a0that he planned to carry out a mass shooting at a festival in Louisiana. A grand jury declined to bring charges in that case in June, and state authorities said the former officer\u2019s family had taken him to a treatment facility out of state where he does not face further charges.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Abuses have also drawn widespread attention. The Washington Post\u00a0reported\u00a0earlier this month finding nearly 50 instances of police officers charged or accused of using the cameras for unauthorized purposes, many for tracking current or former romantic partners or family members.<\/p>\n

Just this week, six employees \u2014 including four officers \u2014 of the Savannah Police Department in Georgia were fired after they were accused of searching for friends and family using the tool and allowing an officer from an outside agency to use the city\u2019s cameras.<\/p>\n

The Savannah department said it was made aware of the misuse through Flock\u2019s voluntary audit function.<\/p>\n

Read more Peter Navarro rips into China in White House report that is more about other countries aiding tariff avoidance<\/a><\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

\n
\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Lauer reported from Philadelphia.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Flock CEO Garrett Langley says customers own the data the Flock surveillance cameras record, and they can also decide which offenses can be searched.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5290,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-surveillance"],"yoast_head":"\nFlock Safety says it will totally be better about (not) giving your license plate to law enforcement - Cross Country Moving Team<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=5291\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Flock Safety says it will totally be better about (not) giving your license plate to law enforcement - Cross Country Moving Team\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Flock CEO Garrett Langley says customers own the data the Flock surveillance cameras record, and they can also decide which offenses can be searched.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=5291\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Cross Country Moving Team\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-08-14T18:39:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\\\/?p=5291#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\\\/?p=5291\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/1b8121bfb9a1c55d1fff3fca675fceaa\"},\"headline\":\"Flock Safety says it will totally be better about (not) giving your license plate to law enforcement\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-14T18:39:42+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\\\/?p=5291\"},\"wordCount\":1227,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\\\/?p=5291#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/48fd2645a282399766229100b38709e3.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"Surveillance\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\\\/?p=5291#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\\\/?p=5291\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\\\/?p=5291\",\"name\":\"Flock Safety says it will totally be better about (not) giving your license plate to law enforcement - Cross Country Moving Team\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\\\/?p=5291#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\\\/?p=5291#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/48fd2645a282399766229100b38709e3.webp\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-14T18:39:42+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/1b8121bfb9a1c55d1fff3fca675fceaa\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\\\/?p=5291#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\\\/?p=5291\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\\\/?p=5291#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/48fd2645a282399766229100b38709e3.webp\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/48fd2645a282399766229100b38709e3.webp\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":600},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\\\/?p=5291#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Flock Safety says it will totally be better about (not) giving your license plate to law enforcement\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"Cross Country Moving Team\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/1b8121bfb9a1c55d1fff3fca675fceaa\",\"name\":\"admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"admin\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\\\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Flock Safety says it will totally be better about (not) giving your license plate to law enforcement - Cross Country Moving Team","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=5291","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Flock Safety says it will totally be better about (not) giving your license plate to law enforcement - Cross Country Moving Team","og_description":"Flock CEO Garrett Langley says customers own the data the Flock surveillance cameras record, and they can also decide which offenses can be searched.","og_url":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=5291","og_site_name":"Cross Country Moving Team","article_published_time":"2026-08-14T18:39:42+00:00","author":"admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=5291#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=5291"},"author":{"name":"admin","@id":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/#\/schema\/person\/1b8121bfb9a1c55d1fff3fca675fceaa"},"headline":"Flock Safety says it will totally be better about (not) giving your license plate to law enforcement","datePublished":"2026-08-14T18:39:42+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=5291"},"wordCount":1227,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=5291#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/48fd2645a282399766229100b38709e3.webp","articleSection":["Surveillance"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=5291#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=5291","url":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=5291","name":"Flock Safety says it will totally be better about (not) giving your license plate to law enforcement - Cross Country Moving Team","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=5291#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=5291#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/48fd2645a282399766229100b38709e3.webp","datePublished":"2026-08-14T18:39:42+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/#\/schema\/person\/1b8121bfb9a1c55d1fff3fca675fceaa"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=5291#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=5291"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=5291#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/48fd2645a282399766229100b38709e3.webp","contentUrl":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/48fd2645a282399766229100b38709e3.webp","width":1200,"height":600},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=5291#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Flock Safety says it will totally be better about (not) giving your license plate to law enforcement"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/","name":"Cross Country Moving Team","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/#\/schema\/person\/1b8121bfb9a1c55d1fff3fca675fceaa","name":"admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"admin"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com"],"url":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5291\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}