Flock CEO says its microphones detect ‘just gunshots’ — its website says different

Garrett Langley, CEO of Flock, claimed that the company's microphones are specifically designed to detect "just gunshots," while Flock's website suggests that the audio systems can pick up a wider range of ambient sounds. During a presentation at TechCrunch Disrupt, Langley defended the company's Gunshot Detection product, which aims to provide "earlier awareness" of potential public safety events by listening for gunshots and other ambient audio in nearby neighborhoods.

The website states that the technology can pinpoint gunfire instantly and can detect street takeovers early to prevent chaos from escalating, as well as identify severe crashes in real time to ensure help arrives faster. It also claims that the system can expand awareness beyond gunfire by providing alerts for car crashes, fireworks, and other disruptive events.

The Gunshot Detection feature, launched last year, faced criticism from privacy groups who argued that the technology listened for human voices, which led the company to modify its website to instead describe it as detecting "sounds of human distress." However, Flock later announced that it had removed the ability to detect "distress" altogether from its customers.

Langley responded to the criticism by stating that many of his critics misunderstand how the product works, and that the technology is not intended to monitor conversations or analyze speech. He acknowledged that there were only a few customers who had prototyped the feature with him and that the company had simplified its marketing materials to emphasize that the system would only detect gunshots.

The company's site and a spokesperson stated that while the technology can detect a variety of events, including fireworks and car crashes, the CEO's comments were intended to clarify that the product is not designed for human monitoring or analysis. Flock's technology is comparable in scale to ShotSpotter, which reportedly has around 25,000 microphones, according to Wired.

Recent scrutiny from privacy advocates, including the ACLU, and public opposition has led some jurisdictions, such as Texas and Florida, to end their partnerships with Flock, while Amazon's Ring terminated its collaboration with the company.