Amid intense backlash over Flock surveillance cameras across America, Flock CEO Garrett Langeley told Fox News that privacy is not the only priority. “I think these are important conversations to have,” he told Saturday in America co-host Kayleigh McEnany, after she asked about the privacy concerns. “I value my privacy… but what we’re talking about is safety as well. And so I think when people talk about just one of these things, privacy or safety, they’re prioritizing the wrong thing. What we have to prioritize as a country is compromise: how do we have our safety, and how do we balance privacy?”Langeley said the call to ban the technology is absurd but there should be regulations. “That’s like banning vehicles. That would never have made sense,” Langley said about a ban. “Instead what we did is we introduced laws against drunk driving, laws around airbags.”
What are Flock cameras?
It is a surveillance camera system that records and analyses everything that comes in front of it. The company sells its services as a crime-fighting tool and some law enforcement agencies have contracts with Flock to use the cameras’ automated license plate readers.Flock has 120,000 automated license plate readers and pan-tilt-zoom cameras throughout the US, which capture billions of data points each month. Flock’s ALPRs automatically scan the license plates that pass them, while PTZs record live footage that can be reviewed and analyzed.
Tracking but for the wrong reasons
Flock has been making headlines for all the wrong reasons and police has been caught using the system to stalk exes and colleagues, though the company claimed that the cameras can’t track people and they can only log vehicles.Dozens of Flock cameras have been forcibly destroyed in recent weeks. In June, a West Virginia man accused of destroying several Flock cameras was arrested.At least 56 municipalities have deactivated, canceled or rejected contracts with Flock this year, according to national advocacy organization DeFlock. The company announced changes aimed at addressing concerns about privacy and misuse. Flock introduced updated policies around auditing, as well as data retention and sharing – although many critics calling for change consider them inadequate.
