Flock CEO concedes police misuse safeguards came too late; data retention drops to seven days after 50 cities cut ties, and audit flags become standard.
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Flock is cutting data retention from 30 days to seven and making audit logs standard after its founder conceded the surveillance firm waited too long to protect its network from police abuse.
Asked whether Flock had taken too long to safeguard tens of thousands of cameras and licence plate readers from police misuse, chief executive Garrett Langley said: 'Yeah... yes.'
Police have used Flock to track former or current romantic partners and to stalk strangers. The same technology has also been used to find stolen cars and missing people. In one case, police set an alert for a woman who had recently had an abortion. A man in Indiana discovered through a public records request that police had placed a Flock alert on his vehicle without suspecting him of any wrongdoing.
At least 50 cities have cut ties with Flock this year. Langley told the BBC that 16 cities that had turned off the service have returned in the last three months, and that the company is adding new customers at a 7:1 ratio to lost ones.
Langley said he asked the board about six months ago why public attention on Flock was growing. Around that time, Amazon's Ring cancelled a partnership with Flock after an outcry over a Super Bowl advertisement raised concerns about unwanted surveillance.
'Historically, my point of view as a chief executive of a private company was, I don't know if I should be making these decisions. I don't know if it's my job to say how long data should be retained,' Langley said.
The American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation have argued that police should need an active case number to search Flock data. Langley said he has come to agree. 'They're right. I think it should be required.'
Conversations with police officers led to the audit feature. Langley said officers would often say of their colleagues: 'We knew that person was not good. We had no way to prove it.' The feature creates an audit log of searches and flags unusual search behaviour. It was released as an option earlier this year, and most police customers turned it on. Misuse proved so rampant, Langley said, that Flock made the feature standard. Abnormal searches and uses will now be flagged automatically.
The company's employees and communities have been clear, Langley said, that they expect companies like Flock to have a stronger point of view. 'I resisted that because I didn't want to have that responsibility.' He has now accepted it and is pitching Flock as crucial to fighting crime. Cities that do not use Flock are effectively choosing 'to be less safe,' he claimed.
Langley said the company is only as good as the data it receives. 'When you see these cases of wrongful arrest, the data was bad and the officer failed to follow the rules. But it's easier to pick a villain that's a company like us.'
The US has no comprehensive law governing personal data. Langley said the visibility of Flock's cameras makes the company an outlet for public concerns about privacy. 'Because you can see our cameras, it's easier to get mad.'
He recalled meeting a woman in Cleveland who was vociferously against Flock in her community. She told him it was ultimately a tool for police to 'abuse their power.' Langley said police 'kind of feel the same way' about bad colleagues. 'We trust these individuals with deadly weapons,' he said. 'I think a camera is very far from a deadly weapon, but I would say it's a very powerful tool. We should hold it incredibly accountable.'
Langley said officers who abuse their position are 'horrible' and should face more than dismissal. 'If anyone is going to be the one that spearheads getting rid of abusive cops? Sign me up.'
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