Flock CEO: We haven’t ‘fired’ any police departments as customers

Key points

• Flock CEO Garrett Langley said the company has not fired any police departments as customers.
• Flock has over 100,000 license plate reader cameras across the United States.
• Protesters gathered outside Disrupt 2026 to oppose Flock's AI-powered surveillance.

Flock CEO Garrett Langley said his company has not ended any contracts with customers over abuse of its products. He spoke to TechCrunch editor-in-chief Connie Loizos at the Disrupt 2026 conference in San Francisco.

The comments follow reporting that dozens of police officers were arrested, fired, or told to resign after abusing access to Flock's nationwide database of license plate detections, often to stalk people without permission.

What Langley said

Langley said Flock would end a relationship with a customer in cases of clear widespread abuse. But he said the company has not to date "fired" a customer, such as a police department or law enforcement agency.

He said Flock debated the issue internally but argued it should not take away 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 added that most of the debate is nuanced, asking what if two officers out of fifty were caught. He said no customers have been fired today, but it is not off the table in the case of a drastic law-abiding issue.

If a customer knowingly broke the law, we would fire them immediately. That’s very easy.

— Garrett Langley

Protests and criticism

While Langley spoke onstage, demonstrators gathered outside the venue to protest against Flock's AI-powered surveillance. Some wore costumes like the red robes from "The Handmaid's Tale" and cardboard replicas of Flock cameras on their heads, while clips from the "1984" movie played on a loudspeaker.

Ashley Ortiz, an organizer with local progressive activist group The Wolves, told TechCrunch she wants local lawmakers to take constituents' concerns about Flock more seriously. "I think Flock is going to be the start of a lot more community building, because we can come together around something as bipartisan as not enjoying mass surveillance," Ortiz said.

Flock, based in Atlanta, Georgia, has more than 100,000 cameras around the United States. The company has faced criticism over cybersecurity issues and camera accuracy issues that resulted in dozens of police stops and wrongful arrests. Some communities have replaced their Flock contracts with rival surveillance companies such as Axon. Langley said the company was not considering a sale to Axon.