Flock Safety is enhancing privacy protocols and oversight measures for its automated license plate recognition systems across the country, following decisions by several communities to discontinue use of the technology and bipartisan legislative efforts to impose additional regulatory requirements. The organisation disclosed on Thursday a forthcoming recommendation that law enforcement agencies store license plate scanner information for seven days rather than the previous 30-day period, alongside introducing features to limit inter-agency information exchange and identify potentially improper queries.
The company intends to mandate that law enforcement personnel link searches to case identifiers and will automatically suspend accounts when unusual activity patterns are detected. The adjustments occur as oversight intensifies of a monitoring system that, according to Flock, operates over 120,000 cameras in 49 states and provides services to thousands of law enforcement agencies and communities.
The imaging systems capture passing automobiles and log details such as registration numbers, vehicle features, geographic position and timestamps. Investigators may access the collected information, which can extend beyond local boundaries.
Since the start of 2026, over 50 jurisdictions have discontinued their Flock license plate reader systems or declined to proceed with proposed agreements, as documented by DeFlock, an advocacy organisation monitoring such surveillance technology installations. Surveillance equipment has also been damaged in localities throughout the nation.
Several cases in which law enforcement officers allegedly misused Flock technology to monitor acquaintances and family members have heightened questions about data access controls and information-sharing protocols. The technology has also drawn scrutiny following instances where errors in license plate data played a role in police stops, arrests, and detentions later determined to be unjustified.
The company indicated the updated policies would provide localities with enhanced oversight of information usage and improved protections against inappropriate applications, with co-founder and chief executive Garrett Langley stating in a recorded message that the modifications represent a continued effort towards developing a nation that balances public safety, privacy rights, and accountability for those in positions of authority. Advocates for individual rights express doubts that the protective measures—some previously implemented—adequately respond to wider apprehensions regarding a tracking mechanism capable of documenting individuals' locations without criminal suspicion.
Regulatory frameworks governing law enforcement technologies—such as artificial intelligence, facial recognition systems, unmanned aerial vehicles, and automated vehicle identification systems—vary across jurisdictions. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, over a dozen states have passed regulations addressing these technologies, though no unified federal standard exists for their application.
The recommendation from Flock to retain data for seven days represents one of the company's most notable policy adjustments. Upon its establishment nine years prior, the organisation established a 30-day standard timeframe as its baseline suggestion, though it permitted individual groups to select briefer or extended durations.
Flock has unveiled a feature called "Evidence Mode" for investigations requiring historical data, enabling law enforcement personnel to safeguard particular license plate records for use in ongoing cases. Existing customers may maintain their current retention policies, as the modification is not applied retroactively. Local areas will retain the authority to determine their own data storage durations.
The organisation described the reduced data storage timeframe as a possible improvement, though noted that the actual effects would hinge on the implementation of the updated feature. The organisation's statement proposed data retention for 48 hours and noted that search-triggered preservation under the proposed system might extend location data availability beyond the one-week threshold.
The company is now providing municipalities with expanded authority to determine which external law enforcement entities may access footage from their surveillance systems. The proposed system for filtering offences would enable a community to grant another agency permission to query its surveillance cameras for designated criminal activity while restricting queries pertaining to immigration matters.
By year's end, the company will mandate that all policing agencies using its services implement the audit assistance feature. The platform identifies atypical query patterns and marks them for supervisory assessment. The platform intends to temporarily restrict accounts that exhibit patterns consistent with unusual usage pending administrative review.
By year's end, the organisation plans to mandate case codes for searches conducted by law enforcement. The policy allows exemptions during urgent situations, though such actions will undergo subsequent examination.
The company's latest oversight features expand upon earlier protections, such as digital tracking records and mandatory justification protocols for search queries. The organisation's statement indicated that certain previous protective measures had not achieved their intended effectiveness. The organisation referenced instances where personnel bypassed limitations on search justifications by providing unclear or uninformative rationales before the company substituted a free-text option with predetermined acceptable reasons for searches.
Reports indicated that close to 50 law enforcement personnel faced allegations of improperly accessing Flock surveillance systems this month, with many cases involving efforts to monitor present or past intimate partners and relatives.
A department inquiry in Savannah, Georgia, resulted in the termination of four officers and two civilian staff members this month following discoveries of unauthorised searches concerning relatives and personal contacts, a statement confirmed. The inquiry additionally determined that a member of the department had permitted another law enforcement entity to use Savannah's Flock surveillance technology. The discovery was made through an auditing tool provided by Flock. The six cases were forwarded to the state investigative bureau for independent criminal review.
The system has also faced examination regarding instances where its data is incorrect or not current. Earlier this month in Wisconsin, a traffic stop occurred when automated license plate recognition technology mistakenly identified a vehicle as connected to a homicide investigation, resulting in the driver being detained at gunpoint.
Officers from Brookfield intercepted a vehicle containing Amber Newell on Interstate 94 following an alert, though authorities from Milwaukee subsequently informed them that neither the vehicle nor its passengers were required for further action. Authorities discharged Newell from custody. The department attributed the occurrence to a staff member's oversight in failing to update the vehicle alert database, distinguishing it from a malfunction of the technology provider's platform.
Newell reported experiencing a previous traffic stop involving firearms that same week, which subsequently affected her willingness to operate a vehicle. The company stated in its public communication that the notifications serve as preliminary information for further investigation rather than definitive determinations, and that law enforcement personnel should verify vehicle registration details through direct observation before proceeding. According to the organisation, the platform generates under nine user-identified inaccuracies per million notifications issued.
