FLOCK flock safety
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Most Flock devices are powered by solar panels and rechargeable batteries, allowing them to operate in locations without access to utility power. Many are mounted on manufacturer-supplied poles, while others are affixed to existing lampposts or telephone poles. Flock's primary competitor in the ALPR market is Motorola Solutions.
==== Integration with other camera systems ====
Flock offers software which integrates its ALPR and vehicle identification software into existing video camera systems, including Axon dashcams widely used in police vehicles. Jill Walker Rettberg stated Flock's network can be integrated into predictive policing platforms like Palantir.
=== Person lookup tool ===
In May 2025, Flock was developing a new product called Nova that the company referred as a "public safety data platform," which would supplement ALPR data with information from data breaches, public records, and commercially available data in order to track specific individuals without a warrant, and which as of May 2025 was already in use by law enforcement in an Early Access program. The Electronic Frontier Foundation described Flock Nova as a "dystopian panopticon". After the 404 Media reporting, the company decided not to include information from data breaches in Nova.
=== Gunshot detector ===
Launched in 2021, the Flock Raven is an audio gunfire locator, similar in function to ShotSpotter. The Raven records audio in 5-second increments, using artificial intelligence to analyze the sound clips for audible gunfire; when a gunshot is detected, the device estimates its location and alerts police. Like the ALPRs, they can be mounted on manufacturer-supplied poles and powered by solar panels. The company claims at least 1200 gunshots have been detected by their system with false positive and false negative rates below 1%.
In October 2025, Flock announced that their Raven devices would begin listening for "human distress", with advertisements showing police being alerted when the device picks up on screaming.
=== Condor cameras ===
Flock also produces their "Condor" cameras, which are pan–tilt–zoom (PTZ) cameras able to automatically zoom in on people's faces as they walk by. According to marketing material on Flock's website, they can be controlled manually.
== Business model ==
Flock owns and operates all of its devices, leasing them to various categories of customers. Competitors primarily market their products to law enforcement agencies, but Flock also markets its products to community organizations and private entities, some customers share data from their systems with police agencies.
Marketing materials center on efforts to reduce crime, and the company uses bird-themed product names. Until 2026, the sales team conducted surveillance demos in Georgia using a real youth gymnastics center, playgrounds, schools, and a pool.
Flock has developed relationships with several mayors. After Denver city council voted to end the city's relationship with the company, the mayor negotiated a free six month extension of the contract for which no approval was required.
== Efficacy ==
Some law enforcement agencies have said that the technology is "[h]elpful at generating investigative leads and solving crimes that may have otherwise gone unsolved", with some additionally claiming a deterrent effect.
In 2024, Cyrus Farivar, writing for Forbes, questioned a statistic crediting Flock Safety's technology with an 80% reduction in residential burglaries in San Marino, California in early 2021 compared to the same period in 2020, with Farivar's piece asserting that burglaries actually slightly increased, and that serious crimes remained nearly unchanged. Farivar also questioned similar claims from Flock regarding Fort Worth, Dayton, and Lexington.
A 2021 study of Flock's Falcon camera by "surveillance research firm IPVM ... found a 10% error rate in the camera output". Flock then halted sales to IPVM and disputed the accuracy of IPVM's findings. Inaccuracies in Flock's cameras have resulted in wrongful arrests in several cities.
In 2025, a cybersecurity flaw was found by researchers which allowed anyone to access live camera feeds and other data from the Flock Condor line. Flock stated the issue involved a limited number of devices caused by a misconfiguration and said it had been remedied.
== Privacy concerns and potential misuse ==
Privacy concerns have been raised with respect to ALPRs generally, including Flock's systems. Additionally, Flock's surveillance model has spurred debate. Flock's surveillance technology is often criticized for its broadening of public surveillance, and lead to a chilling effect on civil liberties, as described by privacy experts and organizations like the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). The EFF argues that ALPRs create more problems than they solve.
In March 2022, the American Civil Liberties Union released a report criticizing Flock Safety's business model and products. In 2023, the ACLU acknowledged some uses of ALPRs could be acceptable, but emphasized the need for careful controls: