GoKawiilOn Thursday, Flock announced plans to require all agencies with access to license plate reader data to use a safety tool that automatically detects abnormal activity and locks out cops who abuse their access to stalk people they know in their personal lives.
Flock’s audit assistance tool suspends access when user activity “meets defined criteria for abnormal behavior,” Flock said. The suspension can only be lifted by administrator review, with the goal being “to intervene before misuse becomes recurring or widespread.”
The tech has been available as an optional free feature since April, but only a third of agencies had opted in, Flock said. However, after a single Georgia sheriff’s office used the tool and subsequently arrested three cops who were separately using Flock cameras to stalk acquaintances, Flock CEO Garrett Langley told The Verge that dozens of incidents like these helped his company realize they made a mistake and had to act to correct it.
“This is such an obvious way to curb abuse,” Langley said, while admitting that “we got this one wrong. We should make it a requirement.”
No data on creepy cop-blocking tool
According to Flock, the Georgia case is not unique, and “identification of abuse predictably went up” for agencies that chose to activate the tool.
However, experts caution that there is no data to show how well the tool works to detect nefarious logins or malicious activity. In a press release, the ACLU recommended that an independent evaluator should review Flock’s tech. Until then, the ACLU warned that there is “no evidence that the tool works consistently” to address what The Washington Post found was a growing pattern of stalker cops using Flock cameras to spy on their exes. As of now, the ACLU said, “We don’t know if the tool is a real security measure or just window dressing.”