Flock Safety is changing its privacy and data retention policies as pressure grows on the automated license plate reader company to prevent its technology from being abused or used for mass surveillance.
The company announced Thursday that it will shorten its recommended default data retention period from 30 days to seven days, reducing the amount of historical vehicle information stored in Flock's systems.
The seven-day limit will be a recommendation, however. Law enforcement agencies can still set their own retention periods based on state or local policies.
Flock will also give cities more control over when outside law enforcement agencies can access data collected by their cameras. Cities will be able to determine which types of offenses qualify for outside access, a change the company said will give "communities more control over data sharing" while still allowing agencies to work together when necessary.
Flock operates automated license plate readers, video cameras and audio detection devices used by law enforcement agencies around the country. Its cameras record license plate numbers and other vehicle information, including make, model, color and identifying features such as bumper stickers.
The system is focused on vehicles and does not use facial recognition or biometric data.
Law enforcement agencies can search information collected by their own cameras and, depending on local policies, data shared by other agencies. That sharing has created a large network of vehicle information available to police investigating crimes.
But the reach of that network has also attracted scrutiny.
Reports in recent months have raised questions about officers potentially using Flock's technology for unauthorized personal searches or broader surveillance. The company is now adding safeguards aimed specifically at detecting that type of activity.
Law enforcement agencies will be required to implement Flock's "Audit Assistance" feature, which detects unusual activity and flags it for review by an administrator.
Flock is also adding what it calls "proactive lockout." The feature automatically suspends a user's access when activity reaches a threshold considered abnormal. An administrator must review the activity before access can be restored.
"The goal is to intervene before misuse becomes recurring or widespread," the company said.
Another change will require officers to enter a case code when searching Flock data. Requiring a case code creates a record connecting a search to an investigation or other law enforcement purpose. The feature had previously been optional.
The changes follow growing criticism of automated license plate reader systems and the amount of information they can collect about where vehicles travel.
The American Civil Liberties Union, which has emerged as one of Flock's most vocal critics, dismissed the announcement as inadequate.
The ACLU called the changes a "thinly veiled PR attempt" to counter concerns about Flock "rather than an earnest effort to address them."
The group was somewhat more receptive to the shorter recommended retention period, saying the seven-day policy "seems positive at first blush." But it argued that allowing exceptions remains a problem.
That means the practical effect of Flock's new retention recommendation will depend heavily on what individual agencies decide to do.
An agency that follows the new default would keep substantially less historical vehicle data than one operating under the current 30-day recommendation. Another agency could choose a longer period if permitted under state and local rules.
The same local control will play a role in data sharing. Cities will have more authority to restrict what types of investigations allow outside agencies to search their cameras, rather than treating access as an all-or-nothing decision.
For Flock, the new rules represent an effort to put additional guardrails around a technology that has spread rapidly among law enforcement agencies.
For critics, the underlying concern remains the same: A system built to help police find vehicles connected to crimes can also produce a searchable record of where large numbers of people have traveled.
The new safeguards may make unauthorized searches easier to detect and reduce the amount of data stored under Flock's recommended settings. Whether local agencies actually adopt the shorter retention period — and how tightly they restrict access to their cameras — will largely determine how significant the changes prove to be.
