On Thursday, Flock Safety’s Founder and CEO Garrett Langley addressed police abuses of Flock’s services and stated “I apologize for the failure of the system.”
Flock highlighted the incident involving me and my spouse, where we found ourselves surrounded by police who believed I committed grand theft auto with a $155k Range Rover due to the LA Sheriff’s department inputting an incomplete plate into the National Criminal Information Center database and being flagged by Flock cameras, in a press statement. “A recent report discussed a wrongful traffic stop involving an auto journalist. The main point is clear: an alert serves as a lead, not a conclusion, which must be validated by an officer,” stated in the release with the emphasis being theirs, not ours. While evading accountability and shifting it to the police, Langley announced extensive changes.
Langley mentioned that Flock will implement new mandatory auditing measures designed to detect irregular activities and repeated inquiries. Furthermore, searches using Flock’s system will now necessitate justification by requiring case codes for all law enforcement queries, with an exemption for emergency inquiries, which will still undergo review.
Unusual search patterns, which appear to include repeated occurrences, will lead to a user being temporarily locked out of the system pending administrative review, according to Flock.
Additionally, Flock will shorten its default data retention period to seven days, which previously varied by state to comply with local regulations. Some states permitted only 7 or 21 days of data retention, while others may have allowed for 30 or up to 100 days of data storage.
Importantly, the new 7-day data retention timeframe is the standard recommendation. “Current clients will maintain their existing, democratically approved retention periods,” stated Flock.
Langley commented, “Historically, my perspective as a chief executive of a private firm was, I wasn’t sure if I should be making these choices. I wasn’t convinced it was my responsibility to decide how long data ought to be kept.”
The BBC reported, “He added that he has come to align with groups like the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation that police should require an active case number to access Flock’s data.” and quoted Langley stating, “They’re correct. I believe it should be mandated.”
Langley expressed to CNN, “What has changed for me is the recognition that we have a duty, perhaps even an obligation, to the communities we serve to set the standard.”
Flock announced it will also launch a new Offense Filtering feature that allows municipalities to determine which types of offenses can be accessed by other agencies through their cameras.
Langley asserted, “We are not flawless, so we will continue to listen, improve, and establish a better standard for public safety technology collaboratively.” These modifications will be implemented in the upcoming weeks and months, the CEO indicated.
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