Flock Safety Loses Another City After CEO’s Email Backfires
The short version: Staunton, VA dropped Flock Safety after its CEO's pushy email to the police chief backfired, adding another city to the growing list of ALPR rejections.
Our Take
Business Reform's breakdown of the Staunton, Virginia cancellation is a good reminder that surveillance companies often undo themselves. According to the video, Flock Safety CEO Garrett Langley sent an unsolicited, combative email to Staunton's police chief, and the city responded by walking away from its contract entirely. You don't need a PR crisis consultant to know that lecturing the people you're trying to sell surveillance infrastructure to is not a winning strategy — and local officials apparently agreed.
What stands out most is Staunton's rejection of the industry's favorite deflection: that anyone questioning ALPR deployment is somehow "anti-law enforcement." That framing has worn thin as more city councils actually read the fine print on data sharing, retention, and who gets access to the license plate trail Flock's cameras build on ordinary people. This isn't an isolated event — it's part of a pattern of communities realizing that a mass license-plate database doesn't need a warrant to track where you go, who you see, or how often.
Credit to Business Reform for tracking this story in detail. If you want to see whether cameras like these are already watching your own neighborhood, check our map, and if your city is considering a Flock contract, our take-action resources can help you push back before the ink dries.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of Business Reform, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.