Flock Safety License Plate Readers Misused by Police in 46 Cases
Police officers were accused in 46 cases of improperly accessing Flock Safety's license plate camera network, allegedly stalking women in some instances. An auto journalist was wrongfully stopped based on a partial plate match flagged by Flock cameras. The company announced governance reforms including mandatory audits, case code requirements, reduced data retention, and tools to detect unusual search patterns.
What happened
According to a Washington Post report, police officers were accused in 46 cases of improperly using access to Flock Safety's license plate camera network, in some instances allegedly stalking women.
An incident involved an auto journalist and his wife being surrounded by police based on a partial license plate match. The LA Sheriff's Department had input a partial plate into the National Criminal Information Center database for a grand theft auto case involving a $155,000 Range Rover, and Flock cameras flagged the journalist's vehicle.
Reported impact
The misuse resulted in wrongful traffic stops and in some cases allegations of stalking by law enforcement officers against civilians.
Index analysis
Flock CEO Garrett Langley stated that an alert from the system is a lead, not a conclusion, and should be confirmed by an officer before action is taken.
Governance controls
Flock announced changes including mandatory audit monitoring to detect unusual activity and repeated queries, requiring case codes for all law enforcement searches with exemptions for emergency searches that will still be reviewed.
The company will reduce the default data retention period from 30 days to seven days, implement an Offense Filtering feature enabling cities to choose which offense types outside agencies can search, and require all law enforcement customers to enable a tool flagging abnormal search behavior by the end of the year.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.