Flock Safety changes system defaults in response to criticisms

Products Back Cameras & Devices License Plate Readers (LPR) Video Cameras Mobile Security Trailers Audio Detection Flock Drones Drone as First Responder Drone as Automated Security Software Flock Nova FlockOS Flock911 Flock FreeForm Flock Safety Platform National LPR Network Investigations Manager Ecosystem Partners + Integrations Featured Products Drone as First Responder License Plate Readers Video Cameras View All Products Book a demo License Plate Readers (LPR) Video Cameras Mobile Security Trailers Audio Detection Drone as First Responder Drone as Automated Security Flock Nova FlockOS Flock911 Flock FreeForm Flock Safety Platform National LPR Network Investigations Manager Partners + Integrations Solutions Back Safe City Subscription One contract. One invoice. Get cost-effective access to every Flock solution today. Learn more By Use Case Emergency Response Event Security Trespassing & Burglary Vehicle Theft Package Theft Parking Lot Security Organized Retail Crime By Industry PUBLIC SECTOR Law Enforcement Corrections Education & Campus Parks & Public Spaces Transportation RESIDENTIAL Residential HOAs Multifamily Communities Places of Worship BUSINESS Retail & Grocery Healthcare Property Management Retail Banking Hospitality Logistics Corporate Security Builders & Developers Manufacturing Book a demo Emergency Response Event Security Trespassing & Burglary Vehicle Theft Package Theft Parking Lot Security Organized Retail Crime PUBLIC SECTOR Law Enforcement Corrections Education & Campus Parks & Public Spaces Transportation RESIDENTIAL Residential HOAs Multifamily Communities Places of Worship BUSINESS Retail & Grocery Healthcare Property Management Retail Banking Hospitality Logistics Corporate Security Builders & Developers Manufacturing Customers Resources Back Latest news Video August 13, 2026 Flock Updates Privacy, Accountability, Security, and Transparency Safeguards Latest news Video August 12, 2026 5 Places Your Community May Need Better Coverage Latest news Video August 11, 2026 Independent Grand Jury Report Highlights Flock's Commitment to Responsible ALPR Explore Resources Resource Library Blog Podcast Help Center API Documentation Book a demo Flock Updates Privacy, Accountability, Security, and Transparency Safeguards 5 Places Your Community May Need Better Coverage Independent Grand Jury Report Highlights Flock's Commitment to Responsible ALPR Explore Resources Resource Library Blog Podcast Help Center API Documentation Company Back Privacy & Ethics Newsroom Careers Get To Know Us Privacy & Ethics Newsroom Careers Contact Legal LPR Policy Book a demo Privacy & Ethics Newsroom Careers Contact Legal LPR Policy Book a demo Products Back Cameras & Devices License Plate Readers (LPR) Video Cameras Mobile Security Trailers Audio Detection Flock Drones Drone as First Responder Drone as Automated Security Software Flock Nova FlockOS Flock911 Flock FreeForm Flock Safety Platform Ecosystem Partners + Integrations Featured Products Drone as First Responder License Plate Readers Video Cameras View All Products Book a demo License Plate Readers (LPR) Video Cameras Mobile Security Trailers Audio Detection Drone as First Responder Drone as Automated Security Flock Nova FlockOS Flock911 Flock FreeForm Flock Safety Platform Partners + Integrations Solutions Back Safe City Subscription One contract. One invoice. Get cost-effective access to every Flock solution today. Learn more By Use Case Emergency Response Event Security Trespassing & Burglary Vehicle Theft Package Theft Parking Lot Security Organized Retail Crime Transportation By Industry PUBLIC SECTOR Law Enforcement Corrections Education & Campus Parks & Public Spaces Transportation Federal RESIDENTIAL Residential HOAs Multifamily Communities Places of Worship BUSINESS Retail & Grocery Healthcare Property Management Retail Banking Hospitality Logistics Corporate Security Builders & Developers Manufacturing Book a demo Emergency Response Event Security Trespassing & Burglary Vehicle Theft Package Theft Parking Lot Security Organized Retail Crime Transportation PUBLIC SECTOR Law Enforcement Corrections Education & Campus Parks & Public Spaces Transportation Federal RESIDENTIAL Residential HOAs Multifamily Communities Places of Worship BUSINESS Retail & Grocery Healthcare Property Management Retail Banking Hospitality Logistics Corporate Security Builders & Developers Manufacturing Privacy & Security Back Privacy & Trust Data Security Myths vs Facts Compliance Tools Book a demo Privacy & Trust Data Security Myths vs Facts Compliance Tools Resources Back Latest news Video August 13, 2026 Flock Updates Privacy, Accountability, Security, and Transparency Safeguards Latest news Video August 12, 2026 5 Places Your Community May Need Better Coverage Latest news Video August 11, 2026 Independent Grand Jury Report Highlights Flock's Commitment to Responsible ALPR Learn Blog Customer Stories Podcast Newsletter Learning Center Attend Upcoming Events Get Support Help Center API Documentation Book a demo Flock Updates Privacy, Accountability, Security, and Transparency Safeguards 5 Places Your Community May Need Better Coverage Independent Grand Jury Report Highlights Flock's Commitment to Responsible ALPR Learn Blog Customer Stories Podcast Newsletter Learning Center Attend Upcoming Events Get Support Help Center API Documentation Company Back Privacy & Ethics Newsroom Careers Get To Know Us What is Flock? Thriving Cities Fund Newsroom Careers Contact Legal LPR Policy Book a demo What is Flock? Thriving Cities Fund Newsroom Careers Contact Legal LPR Policy Book a demo Flock Updates Privacy, Accountability, Security, and Transparency Safeguards Flock is cutting default data retention to seven days, making misuse detection mandatory for every customer, and inviting the rest of the industry to meet the same standard. Flock is recommending a 7-day ALPR data retention period and introducing Evidence Mode to preserve specific data for active investigations when needed. New offense filtering, required Audit Assistance, proactive lockouts, and required case codes will give agencies more control while strengthening oversight of system use. Flock is strengthening data security through mandatory multi-factor authentication, an independent security review by Bishop Fox, and a new Coordinated Vulnerability Disclosure program. Customers retain ownership and control of their data, while Flock is expanding transparency and reinforcing safeguards around ALPR accuracy, access, sharing, and review. ‍ I want to share several updates on how Flock is further addressing three areas that are critical to the company: strengthening privacy, accountability, and security. Privacy When we started Flock 9 years ago, we set the default ALPR retention period to 30 days, unless state or local policy decided on a shorter or longer period. We believed this struck a careful balance between safety and privacy. Today, we are updating our recommendation and default to a 7-day retention, and introducing “Evidence Mode.” Our analysis shows that over 90% of searches without a full plate are done within a week. Evidence Mode, which will roll out in the coming weeks, addresses the exceptional cases that take longer: detectives can preserve specific ALPR data as evidence for an active investigation in cold storage, consistent with existing laws and policies. Existing customers will keep their current, democratically approved retention periods. Customers who adopt the 7-day recommendation will receive Evidence Mode at no cost. Every community will continue to choose the retention period that fits its public safety strategy. We are also introducing Offense filtering for sharing. Now, cities can choose which type of offenses are permissible for other agencies to access their cameras. For example, City A could allow City B to search its cameras only for a stolen vehicle, missing person, or violent crime while blocking searches related to immigration enforcement. This gives communities more control over data sharing while preserving collaboration where policies align. Accountability Abuse of Flock technology, at any level, is unacceptable. We have strengthened safeguards over the past nine years, from basic audit logs to proactive monitoring. 16 weeks ago, we introduced Audit Assistance, which detects abnormal activity and flags it for Administrator review. In recent weeks, those reviews have been associated with arrests of several law enforcement officers who allegedly abused the system. More than one-third of our customers have voluntarily adopted Audit Assistance. We will now require all law enforcement customers to adopt this feature by the end of this year. In addition, we will institute proactive lockout. When a user’s activity meets defined criteria for abnormal behavior, Flock will automatically suspend access pending administrator review. The goal is to intervene before misuse becomes recurring or widespread. In July 2025, we introduced an optional case code requirement for searches. Results from participating agencies have been promising, so we will now require case codes for all law enforcement searches by the end of the year. Agencies may bypass the requirement in emergencies, but every exigent search will be flagged for administrator review. Data Ownership From the beginning, we have been clear that our customers own the data captured by their ALPR cameras. This has always been the case, but some of our contractual language has confused the public on this crucial point. To make that commitment easier to understand, next week we will publish an easy to read / plain English explanation of our contract on our website, organized section by section. The principle is simple: customers own the data, decide who can access it, and choose who they share it with. Data Security Flock is committed to the strongest security program in the industry. This year we retained Bishop Fox, a leading independent security firm, to conduct a thorough review of our products and capabilities. We will publish its summary of findings and our remediations in September. We're also launching a Coordinated Vulnerability Disclosure program (CVD). Flock’s CVD gives security researchers a safe, credited path to report and disclose their work while receiving recognition. Researchers can disclose issues at vulnerability.disclosure@flocksafety.com. At the beginning of this month, we also made multi-factor authentication (MFA) mandatory for anyone logging into Flock, increasing our security standards for all customers. Security is an ongoing responsibility. We will continue testing, improving, and updating our controls. Data Accuracy A recent story described a wrongful traffic stop involving an auto journalist. The central point is simple: an alert is a lead, not a conclusion, which should be confirmed by an officer. Let me explain a little about how this technology works. Basic optical character recognition can see the numbers and characters on a license plate and report whatever it sees. Flock goes further, using machine learning models trained on plate designs from all 50 states, including stacked and undersized characters, and are retrained weekly as plate designs change. Every read carries a confidence score, and low-confidence reads are flagged as such, never presented as certainties and never sent as alerts to officers. Recognition is only the first step. Before an alert goes out, the Flock system matches both the plate and the issuing state against the hotlist record. The system then filters out low-confidence reads before sending alerts to officers. The final safeguard is human. Before acting, an officer visually confirms the plate and confirms the stop complies with law and agency policy. No stop should ever rest on an unverified alert standing alone. This combined system of safeguards results in fewer than 9 human-reported errors for every 1 million alerts. Transparency More than 1,500 agencies have published a Flock Transparency Portal. If your agency has not published one, please, turn it on. The portal gives your community a direct view of your policy, retention period, sharing partners, and search activity, in your agency’s own words. Why Now? Nine years ago, we set out to build a company that would make communities safer. Today, Flock technology assists your officers in more than one million crimes solved annually. In July alone, with your help, we detected over 1,000 missing people and over 20,000 stolen cars. These changes reflect years of work and deliberation. They are not the end of that work, but simply the continuation of our commitment to both safety and privacy. We are not perfect, so we will keep listening, improving, and building a better standard for public safety technology together. You’ll receive additional updates from us in the weeks and months ahead as these changes roll out. Explore More Flock Updates Privacy, Accountability, Security, and Transparency Safeguards 5 Places Your Community May Need Better Coverage Independent Grand Jury Report Highlights Flock's Commitment to Responsible ALPR Protect What Matters Most. Discover how communities across the country are using Flock to reduce crime and build safer neighborhoods.