Exclusive | LAPD renegotiates controversial Flock camera contract amid privacy and data concerns
As the Los Angeles Police Department renegotiates its contract with Flock Safety over privacy and data-sharing concerns, CEO Garrett Langley insists the company has already implemented technical safeguards in California.The Atlanta-based company has faced accusations from activists who argue the automated license plate readers (ALPRs) are an invasion of privacy and collect data that could be shared with federal and state officials to help ICE track down undocumented immigrants. However, Langley, speaking to The California Post in his first interview since LAPD announced the contract dispute, said that couldn’t be further from the truth, underscoring the technology is much more “basic” and only takes photos of license plates“We can’t see into a car.We can’t see a person’s heart rate.
We cannot read the contents of their cell phone,” Langley told the Post.“What we can do is take a picture of their license plate.”Flock’s AI technology is mounted on street lights across the country, and as each new camera gets installed public backlash has continued to grow, claiming the company is creating a massive surveillance network. To combat that narrative, Langley said the cameras are designed to capture license plates, not people, and pointed to California safeguards that prevent ALPR data from being shared with agencies outside the state.“The customer has complete control over where the data goes and who they share with, with an asterisk — so in a place like California, it is a violation of state regulation to take data, ALPR data out of California and move it to another state.”Langley said the company moved to install the “firewall” after listening to public criticism and concerns over law enforcement departments joining a broader network to share data. Langley also addressed how the data is stored, and who actually owns it — the main concern LAPD cited as it let its contract with Flock expire. “The data shouldn’t be monetized.
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