The 'Safety' Illusion: Why Flock Can't Tech Its Way Out of Police Abuse

Flock is attempting to solve a human rights crisis with a software update. As Ars Technica first reported, the company is making its 'audit assistance tool' mandatory for all agencies using its license plate reader data, claiming it can finally curb the 'stalker cop' problem. But as any student of tech-enabled surveillance knows, a safety feature is only as strong as the power structure it serves.

According to reporting from Ars Technica, Flock CEO Garrett Langley admitted to The Verge that the company 'got this one wrong' by previously making the tool optional. Langley's pivot comes after a Georgia sheriff’s office used the tool to identify and arrest three officers who were using Flock cameras to stalk acquaintances. While Langley suggests this proves the tool works, the reality is more grim: the tool was available as a free option since April, yet only a third of agencies had opted in.

This is the central failure of the Flock model. The company provides the surveillance infrastructure to roughly 40 percent of all U.S. police departments—present in every state except Alaska, per the New York Times—and then expects the agencies wielding that power to voluntarily police themselves.

As the ACLU notes in a press release cited by Ars Technica, there is currently no evidence that this tool works consistently. Without independent evaluation, the ACLU warns that these measures may be nothing more than 'window dressing.' The lack of transparency is a feature, not a bug. Unless agencies disclose exactly how many officers are flagged for abuse, the public has no way of knowing if Flock is catching 95 percent of violators or a negligible 5 percent.

Even when the tech flags a 'bad actor,' the system is designed to protect the institution. Former San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin told SFGate that the decision to discipline an officer rests entirely with local agencies. Boudin warns that police misconduct is historically handled internally, making it easy for departments to 'sweep it under the rug.' In states lacking specific statutes to outlaw the misuse of internal police tech, pursuing criminal charges is already an uphill battle.

Furthermore, the 'security' measures are trivially easy to bypass. Flock now requires case numbers for searches, but Saira Hussain, a senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told SFGate that a motivated officer can simply lie and provide a fake case number to stalk a romantic partner without triggering a suspension. The ACLU adds that this requirement was already an optional feature as of July 2025 and did little to stop the abuse.

Flock is trying to 'tech' its way out of a problem rooted in political will and institutional impunity. When the people in charge of the 'administrator review' are the same people protecting their colleagues, a lockout tool is a meaningless gesture. As Boudin rightly noted to SFGate, no amount of monitoring technology matters if there is no will to impose consequences on those who break the rules.