Richmond, Virginia police used vague Flock camera descriptions—make, model, color, approximate year—to identify Rosalyn Crump's 2012 Hyundai Elantra as connected to a shooting, despite lacking a license plate match. Officers impounded her car over her objections and despite body cam footage showing an officer doubting the match, and later identified a different vehicle as the actual suspect car. Crump wasn't told her car was released for four days, and only learned upon pickup that Seibert's Towing had torn off the front bumper during impoundment.
yro.slashdot.org
· 2026-11-02
Canadian software engineer Anthony Sistilli built a $180 automatic license plate recognition camera designed specifically to detect and photograph police vehicles, using AI tools to build the software. After he posted videos of the project to YouTube, two Peel Regional Police officers visited his home, expressing concern that tracking officers' movements could expose their routines. Sistilli said the system remains an unreliable prototype, capturing only two readable images of police vehicles during an hour-long test.
techspot.com
· 2026-10-12
Software engineer and YouTuber Anthony Sistilli built his own automatic license plate recognition camera designed specifically to track police vehicles, modeling it on networks like Flock Safety's. After he posted videos detailing the build and demonstrating it in use, two Peel Regional Police officers visited his home in Brampton, Ontario, to question him about his intentions.
tomshardware.com
· 2026-10-11
Flock Safety told Senator Josh Hawley it has replaced an open text field for justifying camera-database searches with a drop-down menu based on FBI crime categories. By year's end, law enforcement will also need to log a case number before searching, though the requirement can be waived in emergencies. The changes come as Hawley investigates the company and after a Senate hearing examined misuse concerns, including a case where a Florida woman spent 13 days jailed based on a camera match.
techspot.com
· 2026-09-24
Flock Safety introduced a voluntary severance program on Friday, described internally as the most generous package it has offered, aiming to shrink its roughly 1,500-person workforce. Wired reports the company anticipates strong interest and plans to approve buyouts for most who apply, likely averting the need for outright layoffs.
techcrunch.com
· 2026-09-19
A hacker collective called stegan0gram physically removed a Flock Safety roadside camera, extracted its stored data, and recovered an on-device encryption key meant to protect it. They shared the material with 404 Media and Distributed Denial of Secrets, which passed it to WIRED for joint analysis showing the camera logged roughly 50,200 vehicles and 1.6 million images over about 21 days.
yro.slashdot.org
· 2026-09-17
The Florida Department of Transportation issued a memo on Aug. 31 revoking permits for automated license plate recognition cameras, often known by the brand name Flock, installed along state highway rights-of-way. Local law enforcement agencies have 30 days to remove the devices or FDOT will take them down itself, citing rapid growth in deployments and concerns about misuse and surveillance.
wusf.org
· 2026-09-01
Garrett Langley, CEO of surveillance firm Flock Safety, has been giving media interviews urging a 'compromise' between privacy and public safety as scrutiny of his company's cameras and license plate recognition tools intensifies. The pushback follows a Washington Post investigation citing 46 cases of police officers allegedly misusing Flock's technology to track partners or exes, prompting Langley to apologize while denying his company caused the abuse.
techcrunch.com
· 2026-08-23
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