Hood County shuts down Flock cameras over privacy concerns

Hood County has shut down and covered Flock automated license plate reader cameras after county commissioners and residents raised concerns about privacy and mass surveillance, officials said.  

Flock cameras, the automated license plate readers, are used by law enforcement across the country. They say the data helps them quickly track down missing people or dangerous criminals — but not more in Hood County.

On Saturday, Hood County Constable John Shirley shared photos of Flock cameras being covered. 

He said this weekend, the work of shutting down and covering Flock cameras in the county is done, following a request from county commissioners and residents who expressed concerns about privacy and mass surveillance.

Shirley captioned the photos, "These cameras were constantly scanning and recording regular folks just going about their day. That kind of permanent, warrantless tracking doesn't belong in a free society."  He went on to add, "To Flock safety systems: come get your garbage out of my county."

Flock CEO Garrett Langley sat down with CBS News last week. He acknowledged the potential for misuse and said new safety measures are coming, including cutting data storage and audits to flag possible exploitation of the technology. 

Flock CEO apologizes for cases where surveillance technology was abused

This comes after a Washington Post report that police officers were accused in 46 cases of improperly using access to Flock's license plate camera network, in some instances allegedly stalking women.

"Hindsight tends to be very clear," Langley said. "And I think, of course, we could have done more earlier, and we listen, and we learn, and we'll continue to move forward because until everyone has an equal level of safety in this country, we have work to do."

Langley defended his company and the service it provides law enforcement agencies with its network of 120,000 cameras around the country that record license plate numbers and other details from passing vehicles.

"It gets to this issue that when you are given power, which many people are, particularly in law enforcement, you should have higher standards of accountability," Langley said. "And so, I don't think that Flock created police abuse. I think we're the first company to ever shine a light on it and build the tools to find it."

Among the changes the company announced Thursday, Flock is reducing the default period of time data will be retained from 30 days to seven days. However, if data is tied to an investigation that needs more time, it can be preserved in a setting it calls "Evidence Mode." The company also said every search of its data will now require a case code to be entered beforehand. But that can be overridden in an emergency, like if a child goes missing.  

The American Civil Liberties Union has criticized Flock, accusing the company of violating people's privacy rights. In a statement Thursday, the ACLU said the company's plan to reduce how long data is retained "may be a step in the right direction."