The phrase "have I been flocked" has become a common search query as Americans try to figure out whether their license plates have been logged by Flock Safety, the surveillance company whose cameras now sit in thousands of cities across 49 states. The question has taken on new urgency after Flock's own founder and chief executive, Garrett Langley, admitted to the BBC that his company took too long to protect its network of cameras, license plate readers and drones from misuse by police.
Asked directly whether Flock had been slow to guard against abuse, Langley told the BBC, "Yeah... yes." That admission comes after a wave of documented cases in which officers used Flock's technology not to solve crimes, but to track romantic partners, stalk strangers, and in one instance, locate a woman who had had an abortion, according to the BBC. Officers across the country have quit or been fired over such misuse.
What Flock Cameras Actually Do
Flock cameras photograph the color, make, model and license plate of nearly every vehicle that passes by, according to USA Today. Unlike traditional surveillance footage, that information is converted into searchable text and stored in databases that law enforcement can search without a warrant. The American Civil Liberties Union has noted the cameras can even capture bumper stickers, raising First Amendment concerns about government tracking of political or personal expression, USA Today reported.
Flock says it has more than 7,000 police agency customers operating over 80,000 cameras, plus more than 5,000 private-sector customers whose use of the data is even less transparent, according to USA Today. That scale is precisely why so many people are now typing "have I been flocked" into search engines, hoping to learn whether their own movements have been logged.
A Pattern of Misuse Documented Nationwide
The Institute for Justice has reported on 39 cases across the country in which police were accused of using license plate readers to track spouses, ex-partners or other people who had simply caught an officer's attention, USA Today reported. In Lenexa, Kansas, police were accused in 2025 of using the city's license plate readers to monitor a man who had written a newspaper column criticizing the department. In Millcreek, Utah, city leaders removed a Flock camera that had been installed on municipal property without authorization, prompting resident Sarah Whitley to tell CBS News affiliate KUTV, "Who's accessing the footage of the cameras? I don't think we have a clear idea of who that is."
Mistakes have had frightening consequences beyond deliberate misuse. In February, police in Sherwood, Arkansas, pulled over a couple at gunpoint, with their infant in the vehicle, after a Flock camera erroneously flagged the car as stolen, according to USA Today. Separately, a man in Indiana told local news he discovered through a public records request that police had placed a Flock alert on his vehicle even though he was not suspected of any wrongdoing, the BBC reported.
The backlash has been swift. Amazon's Ring doorbell camera company cancelled a partnership with Flock after public outcry over a Super Bowl advertisement that raised fears of unwanted surveillance, the BBC reported. A group called DeFlock organized a national week of action from August 16 to 22 demanding police stop using automated license plate readers, according to USA Today. More than 50 cities have cut ties with Flock this year, including over 20 communities in July alone.
Flock's New Safeguards
In response to the pressure, Flock announced on August 13 that it will cut most data retention from 30 days down to seven days and will deploy technology to flag and lock out users whose searches appear "abnormal," according to both the BBC and USA Today. Langley said he now agrees with civil liberties groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, that police should be required to have an active case number before searching Flock's data. "They're right. I think it should be required," he told the BBC.
Langley acknowledged he had resisted taking a firmer stance in the past. "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," he said. "Our employees and communities have said loud and clear, they expect companies like Flock to have a stronger point of view as the expert. I resisted that because I didn't want to have that responsibility."
Not everyone is convinced the changes go far enough. Cooper Quintin of the Electronic Frontier Foundation described the updates as "piecemeal, voluntary, and reversible," adding that "simple safety 'feature updates' can and will be circumvented" and that searches of license plate databases "must require a judicial warrant."
Langley, for his part, argues cities that abandon Flock are choosing to "be less safe," and he noted the company is still gaining roughly seven new customers for every one it loses, with 16 cities that had previously cut ties returning to Flock in the past three months. He pushed back on the idea that Flock alone is to blame for wrongful arrests tied to its technology. "We're only as good as the data coming in," he said. "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."
Still, Langley told the BBC he supports harsher consequences for officers who abuse the system, beyond simple firing. "If anyone is going to be the one that spearheads getting rid of abusive cops? Sign me up," he said. "We trust these individuals with deadly weapons. 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."
USA Today's Tim Swarens framed the stakes more bluntly, warning that without stronger limits, "our government could watch and record every move we make, every breath we take outside our homes in the name of public safety." For now, the shortened data retention window and new audit flags represent Flock's answer to a question spreading across the country: have I been flocked, and who gets to see it.
