Flock Safety

Flock Safety is an American manufacturer and operator of automated license plate recognition (ALPR), video surveillance, and gunfire locator systems. Founded in 2017, Flock operates such systems under contract with law enforcement agencies, neighborhood associations, and private businesses, and as of 2024, claims to operate in over 4,000 cities across 42 U.S. states.

Flock markets its services as tools for crime prevention, and claims that they are effective at aiding criminal investigations; however, they are widely described by critics as an example of mass surveillance, and their efficacy and effects on privacy and other civil liberties are the subject of extensive public scrutiny and debate.

Corporate history
Flock was founded in 2017. It was co-founded by three Georgia Tech alumni: Garrett Langley (chief executive officer), Paige Todd (chief people officer), and Matt Feury (chief technology officer). It began as a side project in which the three co-founders built their first video surveillance cameras by hand around Langley's dining room table. When a DeKalb County detective told Langley that his camera product had helped with solving a home break-in, Langley called the two other co-founders and told them to quit their jobs.

Flock has raised $380 million in venture funding, with a $3.5 billion valuation in 2022.

By 2024, Flock's fixed cameras had been installed in over 4000 cities and 42 states across the US. By April of that year, Flock employed over 900 people.

Automatic license plate readers
Flock's most popular products, the Falcon and Sparrow, are cameras which monitor traffic and photograph the rear of all passing vehicles. Their software uses artificial intelligence to read the vehicles' license plates and identify other distinguishing visual characteristics, sending that information to a central server via cellular network. Flock's servers then log this identifying data, with the time and location of the scan, in a searchable database, and compare all results with the National Crime Information Center, as well as state and local police watchlists of cars that are reported stolen or otherwise of interest to the police, instantly alerting nearby officers upon a match.

ALPRs like Flock's differ from traffic enforcement cameras in that they are used exclusively for surveillance and criminal investigations, and do not perform any enforcement of traffic laws. Motorola Solutions is Flock's primary competitor in the ALPR market.

Flock claims that its system's ability to identify vehicles' visual features, which it calls "vehicle fingerprint technology," is unique among ALPR systems; they state that the system can identify vehicles' make, model, and color, as well as other distinguishing attributes such as mismatching colors, bumper stickers, dents, and temporary license plates, allowing investigators to search for recorded vehicles based on these characteristics.

Most Flock devices are powered by solar panels and rechargeable batteries, allowing them to operate in locations without access to mains electricity. Many are mounted on manufacturer-supplied poles, while others are affixed to existing lampposts or telephone poles.

Integration with other camera systems
Flock offers software which integrates its ALPR and vehicle identification software into existing video camera systems, including Axon dashcams widely used in police vehicles.

Gunshot detector
Launched in 2021, the lesser-known Flock Raven is an audio gunfire locator, similar in function to ShotSpotter. The Raven records audio in 5-second increments, using artificial intelligence to analyze the sound clips for audible gunfire; when a gunshot is detected, the device estimates its location and alerts police. Like the ALPRs, they can be mounted on manufacturer-supplied poles and powered by solar panels.

Business model
Flock owns and operates all of its devices, leasing them to law enforcement agencies, homeowners' associations, schools, retailers (notably including Lowe's), and commercial and residential property managers. Private customers are able to create customizable watchlists in the system.

Efficacy
Flock claims that their technology significantly reduces crime where deployed. In 2023, a Flock spokesperson claimed that the company's system aided in 7% of successful criminal investigations in the United States.

Flock's investors tout its surveillance power: "'What magnifies the power of Flock Safety even more is that the digital evidence can be pooled across different law enforcement agencies for a short period of time, making it more powerful as adoption scales within a community and across the U.S. more broadly...The power of Flock Safety is in its network. The more devices deployed, the more evidence there is to solve crimes.'"

One example is the case of San Marino, California, where Flock Safety's technology was credited with an 80% reduction in residential burglaries in early 2021 compared to the same period in 2020. This statistic was used extensively in the company's marketing efforts. A closer examination revealed that overall, residential burglaries, and more serious offenses, in San Marino did not decrease in the years following Flock's introduction; burglaries slightly increased, and serious crimes remained nearly unchanged.

Further investigation into Flock Safety's claims across other cities, such as Fort Worth, Dayton, and Lexington, showed a pattern of selective data use and potentially misleading marketing practices. Flock marketing overstated the effectiveness of its technology in reducing crime.

Critics argue that Flock's claims about its impact on crime rates lack rigorous scientific backing and might not hold up under closer scrutiny. Despite these criticisms, some law enforcement officials praise the technology for its utility in solving cases. Skepticism remains among academics and some law enforcement officials regarding the actual efficacy of Flock's technology in reducing overall crime rates, suggesting a need for more transparent and comprehensive analysis.

Privacy concerns
There are privacy concerns about Flock's systems. Flock's surveillance technology is often criticized for its broadening of public surveillance, particularly affecting minorities, and leading to a chilling effect on civil liberties, as described by privacy experts and organizations like the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the American Civil Liberties Union. The Electronic Frontier Foundation argues that ALPRs like Flock create more problems than they solve. There are concerns that Flock's system may cause harm, especially to minorities.

Privacy expert Jodi Daniels warns Flock's technology "creates an environment where individuals may feel as though they are under constant surveillance. This can lead to a chilling effect on free speech and other civil liberties, as people might become hesitant to express themselves or participate in certain activities due to the fear of being recorded and possibly monitored by law enforcement."

The American Civil Liberties Union released a report in March 2022 criticizing both Flock Safety's business model and its products. In 2023, the ACLU acknowledged some uses of ALPRS could be acceptable, but emphasized the need for careful controls:

"We don't find every use of ALPRs objectionable. For example, we do not generally object to using them to check license plates against lists of stolen cars, for AMBER Alerts, or for toll collection, provided they are deployed and used fairly and subject to proper checks and balances, such as ensuring devices are not disproportionately deployed in low-income communities and communities of color, and that the 'hot lists' they are run against are legitimate and up to date. But there's no reason the technology should be used to create comprehensive records of everybody's comings and goings — and that is precisely what ALPR databases like Flock's are doing. In our country, the government should not be tracking us unless it has individualized suspicion that we're engaged in wrongdoing."

Flock states its cameras and technology only captures data from vehicles, and the machine learning is specifically designed not to identify people. Flock has defended itself against "myths" about license plate readers. Although Flock Safety claims their cameras reduce crime, opponents argue that there is no clear evidence for this. In 2023, Atlanta police (Cobb County) credited a Flock license plate recognition system for helping them track down a gunman.

Flock's surveillance model has also brought debates into towns between supporters and opponents of the technology. Menlo Park, California opted out of a contract in 2023, bucking trends of nearby cities.

A 2023 report by the University of Michigan found:

"'Recent studies examining the accuracy of ALPRs show that they often misread license plates, leading to disastrous real-world consequences, including violent arrests of innocent people. ALPR errors arise not only from shortcomings internal to their technology but from the hot lists they depend on to provide matches.

Even when ALPRs work as intended, the vast majority of images taken are not connected to any criminal activity. As most jurisdictions have no policies regarding retention limits, many agencies keep these scans on innocent people indefinitely. This can allow the government to maintain an overarching and potentially unconstitutional level of surveillance and can lead to abuse.

In some instances, officers have misused confidential databases 'to get information on romantic partners, business associates, neighbors, journalists and others for reasons that have nothing to do with daily police work.' Professional abuse includes targeting religious minorities and communities of color. Reproductive rights advocates are now raising alarms about the ways police and others could use ALPRs for the targeting of abortion clinics in the wake of the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade.'"Critics argue for stringent controls and limitations on ALPR use to prevent disproportionate impacts on marginalized communities and to safeguard against the creation of expansive surveillance databases. Inaccuracies in ALPR technology have led to wrongful arrests and privacy invasions, raising significant concerns about the technology's reliability and the potential for misuse.

Unauthorized camera installations
According to a Forbes 2024 report, hundreds of Flock cameras were not properly permitted, running into problems with Florida, Illinois, South Carolina, Texas, and Washington.

From Jalopnik's reporting on the news: "In South Carolina, State Transportation Secretary Christy Hall told Forbes that since spring 2022, her staff has found more than 200 unpermitted Flock cameras during routine monitoring of public roads. In July 2023, the agency put a moratorium on new installations and ordered a safety and compliance review of all Flock cameras across the state... South Carolina Rep. Todd Rutherford had this to say: 'People don’t know what is happening with that data, who is accessing it, who is keeping it. All of that infringes on our personal freedom without our knowledge. It’s getting to the point where a company is willing to break the law to install these cameras.'”