Flock Safety Makes Search Audits Mandatory After Officer Misuse Reports
Summary
Flock Safety will require departments to use audit tools, suspend accounts during suspicious-activity reviews and require case codes for searches, with emergency bypasses, as it responds to reported officer misuse and privacy concerns.
Key points
- Flock Safety will require all customers to adopt Audit Assistance, which flags abnormal activity for review, by the end of the year.
- Accounts will be automatically suspended while suspicious activity is reviewed.
- Officers must enter investigation case codes when searching; emergency searches can bypass the requirement.
- Flock said clients can limit when other agencies may search their camera data, including restricting searches related to immigration enforcement.
- Flock proposed reducing license-plate search data retention from 30 days to seven, except when data is kept as evidence.
- The changes follow reports of officers misusing the system, including allegations and arrests; a Washington Post investigation found at least 50 officers had been charged with misuse.
- An ACLU policy counsel questioned whether some measures would prevent abuse, citing past circumvention of search-purpose requirements.
Article Details
- Event Type
- Flock Safety announced stricter privacy and auditing controls for its license plate reader system following reports of officer misuse and public backlash.
- Impact
- Flock Safety will require customers to adopt Audit Assistance by year-end, suspend accounts during reviews of suspicious activity, and require case codes for searches, with an emergency bypass. The company also proposed reducing data retention from 30 days to seven, with an exception for evidence in investigations, and said clients can limit cross-agency sharing. The changes follow reported cases of officers using the system for personal reasons and contract cancellations in Los Angeles, Cambridge, and Eugene. The article notes that the effectiveness of the controls against false search justifications remains unclear.