Flock adds safeguards to licence-plate readers after wave of stalking cases
Summary
Flock Safety, a company that uses cameras to read licence plates and help law enforcement, is adding new privacy protections after reports that some police officers misused the system to stalk women. The company will shorten how long it keeps data, add controls to limit who can see it, and introduce features to track and stop misuse.Key Facts
- Flock Safety uses about 120,000 cameras in the US to capture vehicle images and licence plates in a searchable database.
- Some police officers have been accused of using these cameras to stalk wives, girlfriends, or ex-partners.
- The company is reducing the recommended time it keeps licence plate images from 30 days to 7 days.
- An “evidence mode” will allow longer storage only in special cases.
- Law enforcement agencies can set filters to control which offences others can search for in their camera data.
- A mandatory audit feature will record all searches and detect unusual activity, locking out users if needed for review.
- By the end of 2026, officers must provide case codes for all searches.
- The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said shortening data retention is positive but criticized other changes as insufficient.
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