ATLANTA, Aug. 13 (Our Los Angeles) — Flock Safety says it will shorten the default time it keeps vehicle-location data and add new controls for police searches, following criticism over the misuse of its automated license-plate reader network. The changes come as the Los Angeles Police Department weighs whether to resume or renegotiate its agreement with the company.
Flock announced the changes Aug. 13. The company said its default retention period for vehicle-location data would fall from 30 days to seven days. It also said law-enforcement customers would receive new tools to document searches, audit user activity and limit access by outside agencies.
The measures matter in Los Angeles, where LAPD has operated or operated 138 Flock cameras. LAPD paused use of the system or declined to renew its agreement after raising concerns about who controls the data, how it is protected and whether it could be shared.
What is changing?
Flock’s cameras capture images of passing vehicles and license plates. The company’s software can allow authorized users to search records for vehicles seen at particular locations and times. Police departments use the system as an investigative tool, but privacy advocates have raised concerns about the creation of detailed records of people’s movements.
Under Flock’s new policy, seven days will be the default period for keeping vehicle-location data. The company said agencies could preserve information longer for active investigations through a new feature called “Evidence Mode.” Longer retention could also be governed by state or local policies.
Flock said it would make its Audit Assistance system standard for law-enforcement customers. The system is designed to identify unusual search activity. If it flags a search, an administrator can lock the user out while reviewing the activity.
The company also said each search would require a stated reason and a case code. Flock said there would be an emergency exception for situations such as searches for missing children.
Another change would give local agencies more control over searches by outside agencies. Local departments could decide which types of offenses outside agencies may use when searching their camera data. Flock said agencies could block searches connected to immigration enforcement.
Why is Flock facing criticism?
The changes follow investigations and public criticism alleging that police employees misused license-plate reader systems. A Washington Post investigation cited cases involving searches connected to romantic partners, among other alleged abuses. The supplied reports do not identify all of the officers involved or provide the outcomes of those cases.
The American Civil Liberties Union said the new measures appeared to be a public-relations response to concerns about Flock’s mass-surveillance system. The group described the promises as largely hollow and said they did not adequately address privacy concerns.
Flock CEO Garrett Langley has defended the company’s approach. In comments reported by the New York Post, Langley said, “The data shouldn’t be monetized.” Flock has also said its customers control the data and that the company does not sell it.
The company’s network has been described in different reports using different figures, including more than 80,000 cameras and more than 119,000 cameras or locations. Those reports do not explain whether the differences reflect separate dates or different ways of counting the network.
What happened in Los Angeles?
Los Angeles entered a memorandum of understanding with Flock in 2023, according to reports citing LAPD and city records. The memorandum expired in June 2026.
In late May, City Councilmember Ysabel Jurado introduced a motion asking the Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners not to enter new Flock agreements or pilot programs. In July, LAPD paused use of the cameras or did not renew the agreement while the department and company discussed new terms.
Dean Gialamas, LAPD’s chief information officer, said the agreement was not being renewed because of concerns about civil liberties, civil rights, privacy and the data collected by the cameras. He also said the central issue was establishing “very clear terms about who owns the data, what happens with the data once they collect it.”
LAPD and Flock were reported to be discussing terms that would give LAPD ownership of data and related metadata collected by the cameras. The proposed terms would also restrict Flock from distributing the information to another entity or using it to train artificial intelligence, according to reports citing the department’s position and contract discussions.
Flock said it was confident that continued talks with LAPD could resolve what it called misconceptions behind the pause. The company and department had not, in the supplied information, announced a finalized new agreement or confirmed that LAPD had resumed using the cameras.
What do the new safeguards mean?
The reforms are intended to make searches more traceable and reduce the amount of time ordinary vehicle-location information remains available. They do not eliminate the underlying camera network or prevent agencies from keeping data longer when Evidence Mode or local policy allows it.
They also rely on local agencies to set rules for outside searches and on administrators to review alerts about unusual activity. The supplied information does not establish how often the controls will trigger, how audits will be made public or what penalties will apply when a user violates policy.
For Los Angeles, those questions remain part of the contract dispute. The city’s police department has identified data ownership, privacy, security and sharing as key issues, while Flock is promoting the new controls as a response to criticism of its technology.
