Flock CEO says it hasn't 'fired' abusive police customers

Flock CEO Garrett Langley said his company has never ended a contract with a customer, such as a police department, over misuse of its license plate reader cameras — even as reporting has identified dozens of police officers arrested, fired, or told to resign for abusing access to Flock’s nationwide plate-detection database, often to stalk people without permission. Speaking with TechCrunch editor-in-chief Connie Loizos at the Disrupt 2026 conference in San Francisco, Langley said Flock debated the question internally but concluded it shouldn’t pull its product from a community that might need it to fight crime.

“If a customer knowingly broke the law, we would fire them immediately. That’s very easy,” Langley said. He acknowledged the harder cases are murkier — what happens, he said, when only a couple of officers out of dozens are caught — but maintained that while Flock hasn’t fired a customer to date, doing so “is not off the table” for a sufficiently serious violation.

Flock, based in Atlanta, has more than 100,000 cameras deployed across the U.S., letting local and federal agencies track license plates nationwide. Because its law enforcement customers can search plates outside their own jurisdictions, some departments track vehicles across the entire country through Flock’s central database — a design that has made the company a flashpoint in the surveillance debate, prompting some towns to cancel or let their Flock contracts expire over privacy concerns. Protesters gathered outside the Disrupt venue during the interview, carrying signs reading “Flock off” and “Flock = ICE.” Flock has no direct contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, though the agency has reportedly accessed Flock data through local police partners.

Langley argued Flock’s system helps police solve crimes faster, citing a case in which a stolen car with a baby inside was located quickly with the company’s help. Flock has also faced criticism over cybersecurity issues and camera-accuracy problems that have led to dozens of police stops and wrongful arrests, including of a journalist driving a review vehicle. Some communities have switched to rival vendors such as Axon, maker of Taser weapons and police body cameras, though Langley said Flock has no interest in selling the company.

Why it matters

Flock’s stance highlights a widening rift between law-enforcement demand for license-plate tracking and the privacy backlash against it — a tension that will keep shaping how police-tech vendors respond to customer misuse as more communities reconsider their contracts.