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Legal and Privacy issues
Flock Group Inc., doing business as '''Flock Safety''', is a [[mass surveillance]] corporation, which was founded in 2017 by Garrett Langley, Matt Feury, and Paige Todd. They utilize [[Artificial Intelligence]]/machine learning, computer vision, and other modern technologies to identify and locate/track people and vehicles. They also offer gunshot locator (listening) devices, which in 2025, also began analyzing human voice.<ref>https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/10/flocks-gunshot-detection-microphones-will-start-listening-human-voices</ref><ref>https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/flock-listening-city/</ref>
Flock Group Inc., doing business as '''Flock Safety''', is a [[mass surveillance]] corporation, which was founded in 2017 by Garrett Langley, Matt Feury, and Paige Todd. They utilize [[Artificial Intelligence]]/machine learning, computer vision, and other modern technologies to identify and locate/track people and vehicles. They also offer gunshot locator (listening) devices, which in 2025, also began analyzing human voice.<ref name="eff microphones">https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/10/flocks-gunshot-detection-microphones-will-start-listening-human-voices</ref><ref name="sos listening">https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/flock-listening-city/</ref>
==Systems==
==Systems==
Flock offers both PTZ (pan-tilt-zoom) Condor cameras, designed to be remotely controlled (by a human or the Flock AI), and "Condor Bullet" cameras, intended for fixed installation.
Flock offers both PTZ (pan-tilt-zoom) Condor cameras, designed to be remotely controlled (by a human or the Flock AI), and "Condor Bullet" cameras, intended for fixed installation.
===Gunshot Locator and Voice Analysis===
===Sound analysis===
Flock offers AI-powered internet-connected listening ("Raven") devices, for public spaces. These attempt to identify the sound of gunshots, car crashes, and human voice suggesting distress,<ref name="eff microphones">https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/10/flocks-gunshot-detection-microphones-will-start-listening-human-voices</ref><ref name="sos listening">https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/flock-listening-city/</ref> "instantly linking them with LPR and video."<ref>https://www.flocksafety.com/products/gunshot-detection</ref> Any suspected illegal behavior or distress is reported automatically to the customer along with other surveillance data from the area.
===Autonomous Drones===
Flock also leases drones, which can be automatically deployed by Flock's AI, to go provide surveillance over an area, or follow a person of interest. With an advertised speed of 60mph, and the ability to scan license plates from 2000 miles away, these enable the customer to identify and track anyone within range, where other surveillance equipment is not already installed. <ref>https://www.flocksafety.com/products/flock-dfr</ref><ref>https://www.cnet.com/home/security/when-flock-comes-to-town-why-cities-are-axing-the-controversial-surveillance-technology/</ref>
"The Flock Safety drone, specifically, are flying LPR cameras as well” -Rahul Sidhu, Vice President of Aviation at Flock Safety<ref>https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/09/drone-sky-could-be-tracking-your-car</ref>
==Legal and Privacy issues==
Although the AI-powered mass surveillance which Flock offers can be useful, it comes with some significant legal and ethical problems. The [[Fourth Amendment|Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution]] provides strong protections against "unreasonable searches and seizures," without a legal warrant, which clearly defines who is being subjected to a search, what place will be searched, and the duration of the search. It also needs to be signed by a judge. Based on legal precedent, tracking the movements of a person over time, is a form of a search, which therefore requires a specific and limited search warrant.<ref>https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/585/16-402/</ref><ref>https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/565/400/</ref>
Unfortunately, these systems are also prone to abuse. There have been many cases of those with access to Flock's tracing data, using it to stalk former romantic partners,<ref>https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/may/02/flock-police-surveillance-tech-birds-iran-press-freedom</ref> and others.<ref>https://ij.org/police-have-reportedly-used-license-plate-readers-to-stalk-romantic-interests-at-least-14-times-in-recent-years/</ref><ref>https://lookout.co/georgia-police-chief-arrested-for-using-flock-cameras-for-stalking-and-harassment-searched-capitola-data-earlier-this-year/story</ref><ref>https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/police-ai-surveillance-stalking</ref>
One defense of Flock's usage, is that each customer can purportedly only access the data their own leased Flock equipment collects. However, each customer has the option to share their data with other customers, which quickly spreads the access to each customer's data, across the country. As of 2026, we also now have federal agencies such as the FBI, attempting to access nationwide tracing data from Flock and/or competitors.<ref>https://govtribe.com/file/government-file/attachment-1-lpr-idiq-statement-of-work-dot-pdf</ref><ref>https://san.com/cc/ice-illegally-gains-informal-access-to-nationwide-license-plate-camera-network/</ref>
==References==
==References==