Flock Safety privacy changes: retention cut to seven days

This article was published on August 14, 2026 Flock Safety has cut its default data retention from 30 days to seven and will make search audits compulsory. The Flock Safety privacy changes follow nearly 50 documented cases of police officers misusing the number plate network. Garrett Langley, the company’s chief executive, set out the package in a post on Flock’s own blog on 13 August. It covers six areas. Privacy, accountability, data ownership, data security, data accuracy and transparency. Most of the Flock Safety privacy changes become mandatory for law enforcement customers on 1 January, the Associated Press reported. The retention change is the headline item. The default holding period for number plate reads drops from 30 days to seven. Flock’s stated reason is its own usage data. Officers finish more than 90% of searches without a full plate within a week, the post says. A feature called Evidence Mode lets detectives preserve specific data for active investigations. It rolls out in the coming weeks and is free for customers who adopt the seven-day window. Cities can also filter what other agencies may search their cameras for. Flock’s own example runs like this. City A allow