Flock Safety CEO Responds to Scanner Misuse: "I’m Sorry"

Our Take

WECT News 6 caught something worth sitting with: the CEO of Flock Safety, on camera, saying "I'm sorry" for cases where law enforcement misused the company's license plate readers. Credit to their newsroom for getting that admission on record. An apology from the top of a surveillance company is rare, and it's telling — it means the misuse was real enough, and public enough, that PR silence wasn't an option anymore.

But here's the problem with apologies from a company whose entire business model depends on normalizing a camera on every corner: they cost nothing and change nothing structurally. Flock doesn't control how a sheriff's department, a curious deputy, or an ICE data-sharing agreement uses the trove of location data these cameras generate. "Misuse" isn't a bug to be patched — it's the predictable outcome of building a nationwide tracking network and then asking thousands of agencies to police themselves. Sorry doesn't delete the query logs, and sorry doesn't stop the next officer from running a plate for a personal reason.

This is exactly why transparency and pushback at the local level matter more than corporate contrition. Check our camera map to see if Flock has already moved into your neighborhood, and if you want to do something about it, our take-action page has the tools to push your city council for real oversight — not just a press-ready apology.