US agency tightens oversight of automated licence-plate readers after reviews of misuse by law enforcement officials.
Printed On 14 Aug 2026
Flock Security has unveiled stronger privateness protections following reviews of US law enforcement officials utilizing the AI-powered firm’s automated licence-plate readers to stalk and harass ladies.
Flock, based mostly in Atlanta, Georgia, operates some 120,000 cameras throughout the US that seize photos of automobiles and licence plates for storage in a searchable database.
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Flock markets its merchandise as crime-fighting instruments for regulation enforcement and personal teams such neighbourhood watch committees, however critics accuse the corporate of working a system of mass surveillance with little oversight.
The corporate has been beneath renewed scrutiny since The Washington Put up earlier this month revealed a prolonged investigation revealing that a minimum of 46 regulation enforcement officers throughout the US have been accused of utilizing the license-plate cameras for unauthorised monitoring, together with to stalk wives, girlfriends and exes.
In a press release on Thursday, Flock stated it’s decreasing the really helpful default retention interval for photos from 30 days to 7 days, and introducing an “proof mode” permitting for longer scarcity home windows in “distinctive circumstances”.
Regulation enforcement companies can now additionally add offence-based filters to limit which knowledge could be accessed by different companies.
“Cities can select which kind of offences are permissible for different companies to entry their cameras,” Flock stated.
“For instance, Metropolis A might permit Metropolis B to go looking its cameras just for a stolen automobile, lacking particular person, or violent crime whereas blocking searches associated to immigration enforcement.”
Flock can even make necessary an audit characteristic that paperwork all searches and flags irregular exercise, whereas the system will lock out customers who exhibit “irregular behaviour” for additional evaluate.
Case codes shall be required for all regulation enforcement searches by the tip of 2026, the corporate stated.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) welcomed Flock’s resolution to slash the really helpful knowledge retention interval, however stated different adjustments have been superficial or recycled variations of insufficient security options.
“Whereas one proposed change to Flock’s operations may represent a optimistic growth, a lot of the different adjustments appear to be following Flock’s playbook of treating reliable privateness considerations as mere public relations issues,” the ACLU stated.
