Flock Safety tries to curb police abuse of its surveillance cameras after scandals

Flock Safety, a company that has installed surveillance cameras across the United States, is attempting to address concerns over its use by law enforcement agencies. CEO Garrett Langley announced steps to curb potential abuse of the company's surveillance cameras after reports emerged of the system being used to target immigrants or people seeking out-of-state abortions.

The company, which has amassed about 20 billion license plate scans per month, had largely left the decision to activate safety features up to its customers. Now, Flock Safety is mandating that law enforcement agencies turn on features that could help audit the way individual officers use its tracking capabilities. This comes after more than 50 law enforcement officers were accused or charged with abusing the camera system.

Langley announced that a feature called Audit Assistance, which flags "abnormal activity" for administrative review, has been turned on by about a third of the company's customers. In response, the company will now suspend users automatically when abnormal behavior is detected, pending a review. Additionally, law enforcement agencies will now be able to restrict the information shared with other agencies to specific offenses, rather than sharing all license plate scans.

The company has also shortened the default retention time for license plate scans from 30 days to seven days, though agencies can opt for a longer retention period for certain investigations. However, critics argue that these measures may not be sufficient to protect the privacy of the communities where Flock cameras are situated. Privacy experts question whether these features are enough to ensure the safety and privacy of the 6,000+ communities where Flock cameras are installed.