New York Senator Chuck Schumer formally requested that Flock Safety address a series of outstanding questions about its National Lookup Tool, along with reports of compromised cameras and improper data handling, and urged the company to purge from its systems any personal information unconnected to criminal activity.
Schumer's letter to Flock CEO Garrett Langley raised questions about the company's National Lookup Tool — a feature enabling agencies to query Automatic License Plate Reader data gathered beyond their own jurisdictions — along with accounts of compromised cameras and the reported misuse of plate-reading systems. Schumer also set an October 16 deadline for a company response.
In a statement, Schumer argued that a private firm had deployed cameras at street corners nationwide that do more than record license plates, building a searchable database of vehicle movements accessible to law enforcement around the country, with software capable of connecting a given car to a phone number and its owner's family, all without public knowledge of who can view that data or any clear justification for gathering it.
Schumer also put questions to Flock about the volume of data its cameras retain on company servers and whether any federal agency — acting independently or through local law enforcement — has obtained access to that information. In his statement, Schumer said no company should be free to gather personal details about people's entire lives without being held to account, and that the scope of Flock's contracts and the extent to which law enforcement draws on its data remain opaque.
Debate over automated license plate readers in Troy has drawn sustained pushback at council meetings, where residents have repeatedly raised concerns about the cameras, alongside broader objections to any federal use of such networks to monitor people engaged in constitutionally protected activities within the state. Positions among those who have spoken on the matter have ranged from calls for tighter oversight of the cameras to advocacy for their removal entirely.
Mayor Mantello, a Republican, has taken the position that surveillance cameras serve as a tool for law enforcement in solving crimes. The mayor's office outlined a set of measures put in place roughly six months prior — among them restricting searches to interstate activity, scheduling annual audits, and turning off the national lookup function — as part of an ongoing effort to weigh data privacy protections against the operational needs of law enforcement, with a new request for proposals planned for the following year to evaluate whether alternative automated license plate reader vendors might better serve the police department.
Council President Sue Steele, a Democrat, indicated that the concerns raised by Schumer pointed to a need for deeper inquiry into the camera program. The council's vote the previous week was unanimous, adopting a local ordinance that set new boundaries on automated license plate reader use — capping data retention at 72 hours rather than the prior 30-day window and confining permissible searches to felony-related investigations. A council spokesperson noted that Senator Schumer's call for transparency from Flock aligned with feedback gathered from constituents and findings produced during the research phase that shaped the ordinance.
Steele expressed hope that the council's legal action would result in the mayor's contract with Flock being declared void, while also noting that the council awaited the court's ruling. The case was filed under Article 78 in Rensselaer County Supreme Court in May, stemming from the mayor's emergency declaration used to maintain camera payments after the council had directed the city auditor to halt them pending resolution of outstanding questions.
Separately, Flock CEO Garrett Langley told reporters in August that a range of product changes would make previously optional safeguards mandatory for all users by January 1. Law enforcement clients operating under the arrangement are to deploy an auditing mechanism designed to detect and flag search patterns that fall outside normal parameters. Accounts flagged as exhibiting irregular activity face a suspension from access while the company carries out an internal review, according to the firm.
The company also notes that customers retain ownership of footage its cameras capture, and it is reducing the default period for holding that footage from 30 days down to seven. Under a case number, data linked to active proceedings would be kept on file for a longer period, the company indicated.
Under the new rules, officers conducting database queries are to first enter a case reference number drawn from their records management system, linking each search to an active investigation — a safeguard that accountability groups have pressed for over many years, according to Langley. Any emergency override would be placed in a queue for subsequent review, according to the company.
Under the company's framework, clients would retain authority to specify which categories of offense — homicide and arson among them — outside agencies may query against their stored data, a provision that would allow any client to bar law enforcement requests tied to immigration matters. Langley described the change as giving individual cities and departments the ability to deploy the system in ways that align with local community standards.
A report attributed to Schumer's office noted that a hacker group, in the preceding month, had physically removed a Flock camera and extracted an encryption key from the device, which then allowed access to more than 1.6 million images and approximately 27,000 video clips. At an earlier point, Flock had provided assurances that the data stored on its camera devices was both encrypted and protected from outside access.
Schumer argued that once hackers breached one of the systems and found the encryption key stored in an accessible location, the broader concern became clear, contending that most people simply want to travel to work and return home without a commercial entity building a record of their movements.
