Flock, a law enforcement technology company, has introduced new safety controls to address growing concerns about surveillance and police misuse of its automated license plate reader (ALPR) cameras. The company’s nationwide network of ALPR cameras takes images of passing vehicles’ plates, color, and other characteristics to feed into a database. Police departments contract with Flock to search the database, which is billed as a tool to help solve crimes.
Addressing Misuse Concerns
However, a string of recent police officer resignations or arrests for alleged abuses of Flock’s license plate reader camera system has added to nationwide concerns among privacy advocates and community members about the technology. Some cities have canceled their Flock contracts, and some critics have gone so far as to vandalize the cameras.
Flock CEO Garrett Langley was motivated to update Flock’s safety controls after realizing just how many people lack trust in law enforcement. The company is now requiring all customers to use its ‘Audit Assistance’ tool by the end of this year. The tool flags abnormal search behavior, such as by an individual officer, and could help address misuse like the former Milwaukee police officer who secretly used Flock to search the location of his romantic partner 124 times.
When the system detects unusual searches, the user will be locked out of the system pending an administrator review, according to Flock. The company will also require users to input a case number to justify each search, with the exception of ‘genuine emergencies’ that will be automatically flagged for review.
Enhanced Accountability
Flock is reducing its standard data retention policy from 30 days to seven days. However, agencies can adjust that retention period based on state or local policy. The company is also adding an ‘evidence mode’ feature that will allow agencies to preserve data longer than the retention policy allows when a search is tied to a specific case number.
Additionally, Flock will give local jurisdictions the option to limit how outside agencies can search data from their cameras. For example, allowing searches related to theft but not to immigration enforcement. Langley called the misuse of Flock cameras by police officers ‘completely unacceptable’ and emphasized the need for building guardrails in the technology to address surveillance concerns.
Original reporting: KOAT Albuquerque — read the source article.
