Flock Safety tries to curb police abuse of its surveillance cameras after scandals
Flock Safety's CEO announced new steps to limit misuse of the company's license plate reader network after reports that law enforcement used the system to track immigrants and people traveling across state lines for abortions. The company had previously left key privacy controls optional, and many police departments never enabled them.
Why this matters: Flock Safety scans roughly 20 billion plates a month. That is not a surveillance tool — that is infrastructure. For years the company handed that power to police departments with few guardrails and called it a customer choice. The scandals that forced this moment were not hard to predict: if you build a tracking network and leave the safety switches off by default, some agencies will use it to monitor people based on where they go, not what they did. Tightening controls now is better than nothing. But the people already tracked for crossing a state line to get healthcare did not get a second chance.
Who should care: Lawyers · Privacy officers · Compliance · Cybersecurity · General readers · Policy
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