- Flock is recommending a 7-day ALPR information retention play and introducing Evidence Mode to sphere circumstantial information for progressive investigations erstwhile needed.
- New discourtesy filtering, required Audit Assistance, proactive lockouts, and required lawsuit codes will springiness agencies much power while strengthening oversight of strategy use.
- Flock is strengthening information information done mandatory multi-factor authentication, an independent information reappraisal by Bishop Fox, and a caller Coordinated Vulnerability Disclosure program.
- Customers clasp ownership and power of their data, while Flock is expanding transparency and reinforcing safeguards astir ALPR accuracy, access, sharing, and review.
I want to stock respective updates connected really Flock is further addressing 3 areas that are captious to the company: strengthening privacy, accountability, and security.
Privacy
When we started Flock 9 years ago, we group the default ALPR retention play to 30 days, unless authorities aliases section argumentation decided connected a shorter aliases longer period. We believed this struck a observant equilibrium betwixt information and privacy.
Today, we are updating our proposal and default to a 7-day retention, and introducing “Evidence Mode.” Our study shows that complete 90% of searches without a afloat sheet are done wrong a week. Evidence Mode, which will rotation retired successful the coming weeks, addresses the exceptional cases that return longer: detectives tin sphere circumstantial ALPR information arsenic grounds for an progressive investigation successful acold storage, accordant pinch existing laws and policies.
Existing customers will support their current, democratically approved retention periods. Customers who adopt the 7-day proposal will person Evidence Mode astatine nary cost. Every organization will proceed to take the retention play that fits its nationalist information strategy.
We are besides introducing Offense filtering for sharing. Now, cities tin take which type of offenses are permissible for different agencies to entree their cameras. For example, City A could let City B to hunt its cameras only for a stolen vehicle, missing person, aliases convulsive crime while blocking searches related to migration enforcement. This gives communities much power complete information sharing while preserving collaboration wherever policies align.
Accountability
Abuse of Flock technology, astatine immoderate level, is unacceptable. We person strengthened safeguards complete the past 9 years, from basal audit logs to proactive monitoring. 16 weeks ago, we introduced Audit Assistance, which detects abnormal activity and flags it for Administrator review. In caller weeks, those reviews person been associated pinch arrests of respective rule enforcement officers who allegedly abused the system. More than one-third of our customers person voluntarily adopted Audit Assistance.
We will now require each rule enforcement customers to adopt this characteristic by the extremity of this year. In addition, we will institute proactive lockout. When a user’s activity meets defined criteria for abnormal behavior, Flock will automatically suspend entree pending administrator review. The extremity is to intervene earlier misuse becomes recurring aliases widespread.
In July 2025, we introduced an optional lawsuit codification request for searches. Results from participating agencies person been promising, truthful we will now require case codes for each rule enforcement searches by the extremity of the year. Agencies whitethorn bypass the request successful emergencies, but each exigent hunt will beryllium flagged for administrator review.
Data Ownership
From the beginning, we person been clear that our customers ain the information captured by their ALPR cameras. This has ever been the case, but immoderate of our contractual connection has confused the nationalist connected this important point. To make that committedness easier to understand, adjacent week we will people an easy to publication / plain English mentation of our statement connected our website, organized conception by section. The rule is simple: customers ain the data, determine who tin entree it, and take who they stock it with.
Data Security
Flock is committed to the strongest information programme successful the industry. This twelvemonth we retained Bishop Fox, a starring independent information firm, to behaviour a thorough reappraisal of our products and capabilities. We will people its summary of findings and our remediations successful September.
We're besides launching a Coordinated Vulnerability Disclosure programme (CVD). Flock’s CVD gives information researchers a safe, credited way to study and disclose their activity while receiving recognition. Researchers tin disclose issues astatine [email protected].
At the opening of this month, we besides made multi-factor authentication (MFA) mandatory for anyone logging into Flock, expanding our information standards for each customers.
Security is an ongoing responsibility. We will proceed testing, improving, and updating our controls.
Data Accuracy
A caller communicative described a wrongful postulation extremity involving an car journalist. The cardinal constituent is simple: an alert is simply a lead, not a conclusion, which should beryllium confirmed by an officer.
Let maine explicate a small astir really this exertion works. Basic optical characteristic nickname tin spot the numbers and characters connected a licence sheet and study immoderate it sees. Flock goes further, utilizing instrumentality learning models trained connected sheet designs from each 50 states, including stacked and undersized characters, and are retrained play arsenic sheet designs change. Every publication carries a assurance score, and low-confidence sounds are flagged arsenic such, ne'er presented arsenic certainties and ne'er sent arsenic alerts to officers.
Recognition is only the first step. Before an alert goes out, the Flock strategy matches some the sheet and the issuing authorities against the hotlist record. The strategy past filters retired low-confidence sounds earlier sending alerts to officers.
The last safeguard is human. Before acting, an serviceman visually confirms the sheet and confirms the extremity complies pinch rule and agency policy. No extremity should ever remainder connected an unverified alert opinionated alone.
This mixed strategy of safeguards results successful less than 9 human-reported errors for each 1 cardinal alerts.
Transparency
More than 1,500 agencies person published a Flock Transparency Portal. If your agency has not published one, please, move it on. The portal gives your organization a nonstop position of your policy, retention period, sharing partners, and hunt activity, successful your agency’s ain words.
Why Now?
Nine years ago, we group retired to build a institution that would make communities safer. Today, Flock exertion assists your officers successful much than 1 cardinal crimes solved annually. In July alone, pinch your help, we detected complete 1,000 missing group and complete 20,000 stolen cars.
These changes bespeak years of activity and deliberation. They are not the extremity of that work, but simply the continuation of our committedness to some information and privacy. We are not perfect, truthful we will support listening, improving, and building a amended modular for nationalist information exertion together. You’ll person further updates from america successful the weeks and months up arsenic these changes rotation out.
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