Flock Safety's new privacy rules fail to quell ALPR surveillance concerns

Published Aug 14, 05:01 PM UTC

Amid mounting public backlash and a growing anti-Flock movement, Flock Safety, the largest US provider of automatic license plate readers (ALPR), announced new data security policies on Thursday. The reforms include lowering data retention from 30 to seven days, mandatory auditing tools, and requiring case numbers for law enforcement searches by end of 2026. However, civil liberty advocates, including the Institute for Justice and the ACLU, dismiss the changes as 'window dressing' that fail to address constitutional concerns. Reports of police misuse—including wrongful stops, stalking, and unauthorized searches—have fueled cancellations of Flock contracts in over 20 jurisdictions. Critics argue the reforms place the onus on local police to self-police and can be easily circumvented, while Flock's own crime-reduction study lacks clear marginal impact evidence.