Flock Safety tightens safeguards as states, cities question surveillance network

The briefing

Flock Safety is cutting its recommended license plate data retention from 30 days to seven and adding tools to restrict inter-agency sharing and flag abusive searches. The company, which says it has more than 120,000 cameras across 49 states, will require case codes for searches and automatically suspend users flagged for abnormal activity. More than 50 agencies have canceled or suspended contracts since the start of 2026, and civil liberties groups say earlier safeguards proved ineffective.