Flock, a major provider of police technology, announced new rules to limit officers’ access to its nationwide license plate reader network. The changes aim to address concerns about misuse of the system, which includes 120,000 cameras. A recent Washington Post investigation found 46 cases where officers were accused of using Flock’s cameras for unauthorized purposes, including stalking. The company said it will now require officers to enter a criminal case number before conducting a search. This change was introduced as an option last year but is now mandatory. Flock said the measure is meant to verify that each search has a legitimate purpose. Officers have found ways to bypass similar safeguards in the past, including using generic terms like 'investigation' or mocking the prompt entirely. The company is also expanding an automatic auditing system to flag suspicious searches. This tool was introduced as an option last year but is now required. Flock has not shared specifics on how accurate the auditing tool is, nor has it opened it up to independent evaluators. The changes come as Flock faces growing backlash over its data collection practices and the potential for abuse. Some cities have reportedly dropped Flock contracts, though the exact number is unclear. The ACLU and other groups have criticized the company for enabling mass surveillance and allowing officers to search data without warrants. Flock CEO Garrett Langley said the backlash is driven by misinformation, including the belief that the company engages in facial recognition or sells data to commercial buyers. The company has taken steps to address public concerns but says its changes are incremental compared to what critics have advocated. Marlow, an ACLU policy counsel, said Flock’s new rules are a response to public pressure but fall short of the necessary changes to address the broader concerns about surveillance. The company has not opened its systems to independent researchers for the first time, which Marlow says is needed to properly assess whether the changes reduce abuse. Flock’s new rules are seen as a small step in a larger debate about the role of surveillance technology in policing. The company faces a crossroads as it tries to balance its business interests with growing public concern over privacy and data collection. The changes are part of a broader trend of cities and states moving away from Flock to other providers like Axon and Motorola. Flock has said these cancellations represent a small number of the 5,000 agencies that have contracted with the company. The company’s new rules are undeniably small and incremental compared with what the ACLU has advocated. Marlow is broadly supportive of them but notes that judging whether they reduce abuse would require the company to open its systems to independent researchers for the first time rather than citing internal studies. More broadly, though, he says the backlash is putting the company at a crossroads. “Flock has come to the table because this incredible, unprecedented nationwide uprising against their company has scared them,” Marlow says. “But at the same, they are just absolutely unwilling to make the actual changes they need to make in order to legitimately respond to these concerns. So this is the best that the company is willing to do.”
Source: mittr
