Flock Safety CEO Claims Online Resistance Is Artificial
Garrett Langley, CEO of Flock Safety, suggested on Sunday that the backlash against his company is largely orchestrated by Russian bots, a claim he made without offering any evidence, based on leaked audio shared by 404 Media.
At a conference held by the International Association of Chiefs of Police in Orlando, Florida, Langley described online opposition to Flock as not genuine but instead as a creation of non-human actors, according to reports from 404 Media. He also alleged that opponents of Flock are being compensated for their statements, expressing a desire to avoid interviews in the future.
“These people are being paid to say these things,” Langley stated in the audio.
He pointed out a decrease in online discussions surrounding Flock, asserting, “Online chatter about Flock is down 50% after Ukraine bombed a Russian data center last week […] it’s anonymous bots, and it’s not real,” implying that the animosity towards Flock is artificially manufactured.
Langley further commented on the broader industry, saying, “Whenever this industry finds a highly effective tool, it has to go through this period of intense debate. But then you get on the other side. I think right now we’re not at the bottom, but we’re real, dang-near close to it and about to come back up on the other side.”
Flock Safety, based in the U.S., specializes in automatic license plate readers (ALPR) and surveillance technologies that allow for precise tracking of individuals, raising questions about privacy. Law enforcement can access data from Flock without the need for a warrant, as noted by 404 Media.
There are reportedly more than 144,000 Flock cameras operational across the nation, according to DeFlock, a project that monitors Flock’s ALPR systems.
Flock Safety has not responded to requests for comments regarding these claims.
Protests against Flock have taken place nationwide coinciding with the company’s expansion in surveillance technology. Barry Harris, a beekeeper from Wilmington, North Carolina, highlighted the diverse group opposing Flock during a rally in August.
“There’s gays, straights, young, old, liberals, way-left liberals, Genghis Khan conservatives to the right here,” he remarked about the rally’s crowd.
In a notable incident, the San Jose Police Department dismissed an officer who misused the Flock network to locate a relative implicated in domestic violence. There was also a case in Florida where a woman was wrongfully arrested linked to a car crash due to erroneous data from Flock cameras.
Republican Senator Josh Hawley from Missouri mentioned that a police officer in Milwaukee was charged after he reportedly searched his girlfriend’s license plate 124 times, as well as her ex-boyfriend’s plate 55 times, claiming “investigation” as a reason for his actions.
While no explicit legislative efforts to ban Flock cameras have been made in Congress, various proposals aim to limit the utilization of Flock surveillance data. Senator Bernie Sanders from Vermont has introduced a bill to curtail federal funding for Flock, and Hawley has proposed legislation to prohibit sharing of Flock data with private entities.
