Flock Safety introduces shorter data retention and new abuse-prevention tools

Flock Safety said it will cut the retention period for video captured by its network of automated license-plate readers from 30 days to seven days, citing that most law-enforcement searches are completed within that timeframe. The company also unveiled "Evidence Mode," which lets agencies retain data longer when required by state or local policy.

Under the new rules, municipalities can choose which categories of criminal offenses may be shared with other jurisdictions, allowing, for example, a city to permit searches for stolen-vehicle or violent-crime data while blocking requests related to immigration enforcement.

Flock is making its Audit Assistance framework standard for all law-enforcement customers. The system flags abnormal search patterns, locks the user out in real time, and requires an administrator review before further use. Additionally, a case-code field that was previously optional will now be mandatory for every search, with an override allowed for genuine emergencies such as missing-child alerts.

The changes come after privacy advocates and some local officials criticized the company's surveillance practices. The American Civil Liberties Union described the reforms as a public-relations effort rather than a substantive solution to privacy concerns.

"A search without a reason is a search that shouldn’t happen in the first place, and now Flock’s system automatically treats it that way," the company said.