Flock CEO Tells Police Chiefs Backlash Is Mostly Paid Bots
The remarks come as dozens of cities have dropped Flock contracts and lawmakers weigh bills to ban or restrict its license plate cameras.
At a closed-door police chiefs' conference in Orlando, Flock CEO Garrett Langley told attendees that the protests against his company's automatic license plate readers are not genuine, according to leaked audio obtained by 404 Media. He claimed without evidence that the online criticism is mostly paid bot activity, saying social media chatter about Flock has fallen about 95 percent since July. He also said a 50 percent drop in the last week coincided with a Ukrainian drone strike on a Russian data center, a link the source presents as Langley's own theory rather than established fact. Langley added that he would prefer to stop giving press interviews and that his wife had told him never to apologize. The remarks matter for anyone building or buying surveillance tech because they come as dozens of cities have dropped Flock contracts over the past 18 months and lawmakers push bills that would ban or rein in the company's cameras.
Why it matters
For police departments and local governments, the episode puts a spotlight on how a surveillance vendor responds to public scrutiny, at a time when cities are already reconsidering their contracts. Langley's claim that the criticism is largely manufactured is unsupported by evidence in the reporting, so it does little to answer residents' concerns about privacy and data use. Councils weighing whether to keep Flock's roughly 80,000-camera network will have to decide on the merits of those concerns rather than on the company's account of them.
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