Flock to require case number for searches, recommends storing data for only seven days
The short version: Flock's new case-number requirement and shorter retention recommendation are welcome but voluntary guardrails that don't bind existing customers or override local policy.
Our Take
Credit to WWMT-TV in Kalamazoo for flagging the timing here: Flock Safety rolled out these changes the same week advocates nationwide were organizing against ALPR overreach. That's not a coincidence, it's a company managing its image. Requiring a case number for searches and flagging anomalous activity sounds like accountability, but notice the mechanism — it's a corporate policy, not a law, and it only applies going forward. Departments can still ignore it, and nothing stops a future rollback.
The retention change is the more revealing detail. Flock quietly dropping its recommended storage window from 30 days to 7 is essentially an admission that 30 days of plate scans on every driver was never necessary to begin with. But it's a 'recommendation,' not a mandate, and it explicitly does not change retention for agencies already running the system. In other words, the data already sitting in Flock's servers on millions of innocent drivers stays put. Self-regulation announced during a national week of protest should be read as damage control, not reform.
Real change comes from local contracts, public records requests, and city councils, not vendor press releases. Check our camera map to see what's already deployed near you, then use our take-action resources to push your local government for actual binding limits on retention and search audits — not just Flock's word.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of WWMT-TV, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.