Flock Safety, the AI-powered security camera operator facing mounting criticism, announced a comprehensive overhaul of its privacy and security measures on Thursday in response to intensifying backlash from consumers and reports of law enforcement misuse.

The company's expanding network of automated license plate readers (ALPRs) has drawn sustained public scrutiny. ALPR technology has proliferated rapidly across U.S. law enforcement over the past decade, with Flock alone operating more than 119,000 cameras nationwide — a footprint that has made it one of the most visible players in a broader surveillance technology market that also includes facial recognition systems, predictive policing algorithms, and drone programs, all facing similar debates over civil liberties and accountability. In response, Flock unveiled a series of reforms encompassing enhanced privacy protections, strengthened controls for local law enforcement agencies, and new accountability measures.

As an initial step, Flock is shortening its standard data retention window from 30 days to seven days. Previously, all data captured by the company's more than 119,000 cameras nationwide was automatically deleted after 30 days. Under the new policy, data will persist on Flock servers for only one week. The shift comes as several states, including California and Virginia, have enacted data privacy laws that impose stricter limits on how long companies and agencies can retain personal information, though no comprehensive federal privacy statute currently governs ALPR data.

Law enforcement agencies have frequently defended the system against privacy concerns by pointing to its effectiveness in apprehending criminals. Flock noted that 90% of all searches conducted through its platform already occur within a one-week timeframe, positioning the retention change as consistent with existing law enforcement usage patterns.

For agencies requiring extended investigative timelines, Flock introduced "Evidence Mode," a feature enabling data preservation beyond the standard window in accordance with state or local policy.

Additionally, agencies will gain the ability to determine which categories of criminal offenses they will share data about with other municipalities. "For example, City A could allow City B to search its cameras for a stolen vehicle or violent crime while blocking searches related to immigration enforcement," the company explained.

Flock has faced significant criticism from privacy advocates and citizens concerned about long-term data storage. Knox County, Tennessee Mayor Glen Jacobs has called for a national moratorium on the deployment of Flock cameras.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has also been a prominent critic. In a Thursday statement, the ACLU said Flock's reforms "seem to be a thinly veiled PR attempt to counter communities' genuine privacy concerns with its mass surveillance system with largely hollow security promises, rather than an earnest effort to address them."

Reports of police officers abusing the technology to stalk romantic partners have further fueled public backlash. Such incidents have precedent in broader law enforcement database misuse; a 2016 inspector general investigation by the Department of Justice found persistent problems with improper queries of federal databases by law enforcement personnel. Flock's latest reforms include measures designed to proactively prevent such misuse.

A framework called Audit Assistance, which flags abnormal search behavior, was previously released as an optional feature. Flock reported that roughly one-third of agencies had enabled it. The company will now make it standard for every law enforcement customer. "When a system detects abnormal activity, the user is locked out in real time until an administrator reviews the searches. Flock is moving to more proactively address and root out misuse of technology," the company stated.

Flock will also require a documented reason for every search. In July 2025, the company introduced an optional case code requirement; the new reform makes that case code mandatory, though an override will exist for "genuine emergencies" such as missing children cases.

"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," Flock told FOX Business.

Despite the backlash, Flock emphasized its track record of assisting in locating missing persons. The company said that across the approximately 1 million investigations involving its technology last year, roughly 10,000 missing people were located. The reforms arrive as communities nationwide continue to weigh the trade-offs between surveillance-enabled policing and constitutional privacy protections, with local governments increasingly becoming the primary arbiters of how such technologies are deployed.