19 August 2026
Police surveillance tool Flock announces safeguards against officer misuse
First reported
MIT Technology Review ran this on , 2 days before the next source picked it up.
- Flock, which operates 120,000 license plate readers nationwide, added requirements like case numbers and abnormal search flags to prevent officers from misusing the system.
- The Washington Post documented 50 cases where officers abused Flock and competing systems to stalk women, including one Wisconsin officer who searched for his ex-girlfriend 179 times.
- The new safeguards have significant gaps: officers can enter fake case numbers, and the company doesn't verify them or address concerns that the system enables mass surveillance.
- Several cities have already canceled Flock contracts, and some states are considering laws to limit or ban license plate readers entirely, forcing potential redesign of the technology.
How it was covered
The AlgorithmMIT Technology Review
Flock released an AI tool that lets police identify drivers by their movements, going beyond license plate tracking. MIT Technology Review argues Flock's defenders are missing important concerns.
Reported by MIT Technology Review