Flock Safety tries to curb police abuse of its surveillance cameras after scandals

CEO announces steps after reports that system is used to target immigrants or people seeking out-of-state abortions For nearly a decade, the company Flock Safety has gradually built out a network of cameras across the US that allows law enforcement officials to conduct about 20bn license plate scans every month. In that time, the company had largely left the decision to turn on safety measures up to its customers. Many of those organizations did not turn them on. Now, the company is doing damage control. Garrett Langley, Flock’s CEO, announced on Thursday that the company would begin mandating that law enforcement agencies switch on features that could help audit the way individual officers use its tracking capabilities. It had been reported that more than 50 law enforcement officers were accused of or charged with abusing Flock’s camera system, including to stalk ex-partners. “These changes reflect years of work and deliberation,” Langley wrote in a blogpost announcing the new guardrails. “They are not the end of that work, but simply the continuation of our commitment to both safety and privacy.” Four months ago, the company introduced a voluntary feature called Audit Assistance,