Flock Safety platform privacy changes now cut the default ALPR retention period to 7 days and add mandatory search-review controls for law enforcement customers. The company says the shift is meant to narrow how long camera data stays active and to tighten review of searches tied to police use.
Flock Safety said more than 90% of searches without a full plate are already done within a week. That is why the company is introducing Evidence Mode in the coming weeks for customers who choose the 7-day recommendation at no cost, while existing customers keep their current, democratically approved retention periods.
Flock Safety and Audit Assistance
Flock introduced Audit Assistance 16 weeks ago. The system detects abnormal activity and flags it for Administrator review. More than one-third of Flock Safety customers have already adopted it voluntarily, and the company will require all law enforcement customers to use it by the end of this year.
Flock will also institute proactive lockout. When a user’s activity meets defined criteria for abnormal behavior, access will be automatically suspended pending administrator review. Flock also said it will require case codes for all law enforcement searches by the end of the year, after introducing an optional case code requirement in July 2025.
Evidence Mode and offense filtering
Flock is also introducing Offense filtering for sharing. City A will be able to limit City B to searches tied only to a stolen vehicle, missing person, or violent crime. City A can block searches related to immigration enforcement through those sharing rules.
The company said customers own the data captured by their ALPR cameras. Flock also said some contractual language has confused the public on that point. Next week, it will publish a plain English explanation of its contract on its website, section by section.
Flock Safety contract changes
The practical effect is simple for a law enforcement user. Retention gets shorter by default. Searches get more review. Abnormal activity gets an automatic stop instead of waiting for someone to notice it later.
The open question is scale. Flock has said all law enforcement customers will face the new mandatory controls by the end of this year, but it has not said how many customers that covers.
