Flock Safety CEO Garrett Langley is calling for a national compromise on automated license plate readers, pushing back against a growing wave of public protest, vandalism, and legislative efforts to ban the surveillance technology. In an interview Saturday, Langley argued that the debate should not be framed as a choice between privacy and safety, insisting that Americans can have both if regulators focus on accountability rather than prohibition.
“When people talk about just one of these, privacy or safety, they're prioritizing the wrong thing, and what we have to prioritize as a country is compromise,” Langley said. “How do we have our safety, and how do we balance privacy?” His remarks come as residents in communities across the country have taken direct action against the cameras, which law enforcement agencies in dozens of states use to record vehicle data for criminal investigations.
Opposition has ranged from peaceful protest to property destruction. Earlier this month, a man in St. Petersburg, Florida, stood in front of a Flock camera holding a sign reading “Down with the Flock” as a form of demonstration. “My biggest concern is I don’t want people to know where I go and when I go. That’s my business, not anyone else’s,” Carl Gunn said at the time. In other incidents, Flock cameras have been reported vandalized or stolen in New York, Minnesota, California, and Illinois.
The backlash has also reached Capitol Hill. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., has proposed banning the technology outright, while Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., has pushed to cut federal funding for local installations. These efforts reflect broader anxieties about how the data is stored, who can access it, and whether it could be misused by law enforcement.
Langley defended the technology’s track record, noting that Flock has assisted law enforcement in over a million investigations and helped locate more than 10,000 missing people. He acknowledged, however, that the industry has not done enough to police itself. “Today, it is too often that in Flock and in other technologies, there's no regulation. There's no accountability, and we think that's wrong,” he said.
To address those concerns, the company has announced changes that include mandatory auditing and the use of an audit assistance tool designed to detect abnormal behavior. Langley said Flock also recommends a seven-day data retention limit and supports holding those who misuse the system accountable. He urged state regulators to focus on oversight rather than banning the technology outright, arguing that a blanket prohibition would leave communities without a valuable crime-fighting tool.
Flock Safety’s website describes its products as “technology that helps communities deter crime, respond to emergencies, and investigate safety incidents,” and states that the company aims to balance public safety with privacy. Whether that balance can be achieved remains an open question as the public debate over surveillance continues to intensify.