Flock Safety adds new oversight features following misuse reports

Flock Safety announced on Thursday that it is reducing its default data retention period from 30 days to seven days while introducing new security requirements for law enforcement.

By the end of the year, agencies must adopt audit monitoring tools and enter case codes for all searches.

These changes aim to prevent misuse following reports of officers violating policies.

New features like Evidence Mode will allow investigators to store specific data for active investigations.

The company announced the changes Thursday.

The shift in retention policy comes as the company updates standards across privacy, accountability and system security.

The move comes as more law enforcement officers and public safety officials have allegedly been caught misusing Flock.

Channel 2 Action News has covered several stories recently with local officers facing punishment for alleged violations of policies.

Among the cases, an ex-911 officer for Dallas Police Department in Paulding County was fired for alleged misuse of the system, eight DeKalb PD officers were suspended for policy violations and six Savannah officers were accused of misusing their department’s system.

Channel 2’s Michael Doudna also reported in July on the surge in Flock-related misuse claims and Flock Safety’s response to them.

The company said its reviews linked to the system recently led to arrests of several law enforcement officers accused of misusing the technology.

Clients adopting the seven-day retention period will receive access to Evidence Mode, which will be rolling out in the coming weeks. The feature allows investigators to transfer specific license plate data into long-term cold storage for active criminal investigations.

“Our analysis shows that over 90% of searches without a full plate are done within a week,” Flock said.

Under a new offense filtering capability, municipalities can limit how external agencies access their camera networks. For instance, cities can authorize searches for specific offenses—such as violent crime, missing persons or stolen vehicles—while restricting searches related to immigration enforcement.

“The principle is simple: customers own the data, decide who can access it, and choose who they share it with,” Flock Safety said.

Existing customers may retain their current data retention limits, while individual communities retain authority to choose retention periods aligned with local public safety policies.

Flock Safety is making its Audit Assistance tool mandatory for all law enforcement clients by the end of the year.

The feature, currently adopted voluntarily by more than one-third of customers, flags abnormal search patterns for review.

Flock Safety is also implementing an automated proactive lockout function to suspend user accounts exhibiting abnormal behavior, even before administrator reviews.

“The goal is to intervene before misuse becomes recurring or widespread,” the company said.

Law enforcement agencies will also be required to enter case codes for all searches by the end of the year. While emergency searches can bypass the entry requirement, such searches will automatically trigger an administrator review.

To address public confusion surrounding contract terms, the company plans to publish a plain-language explanation of its customer contracts, affirming that local agencies maintain full ownership and access control over captured data.

In security updates, multi-factor authentication is now mandatory for all Flock Safety system logins as of the beginning of the month.

The company retained independent security firm Bishop Fox to audit its products, with plans to publish a summary of findings and remediations in September alongside a new Coordinated Vulnerability Disclosure program.

Regarding accuracy, the company reported that its technology, which combines machine learning character recognition with mandatory officer visual verification, generates fewer than nine human-reported errors per 1 million alerts.

“A recent story described a wrongful traffic stop involving an auto journalist. The central point is simple: an alert is a lead, not a conclusion, which should be confirmed by an officer. ... No stop should ever rest on an unverified alert standing alone,” the company said.

More than 1,500 agencies currently operate a public Flock Transparency Portal detailing local policies, sharing agreements and search activity.

“In July alone, with your help, we detected over 1,000 missing people and over 20,000 stolen cars,” Flock Safety said in a statement.

“We are not perfect, so we will keep listening, improving, and building a better standard for public safety technology together,” the company added.

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