Flock Safety CEO Garrett Langley addressed balancing privacy and safety amid Americans’ oversight concerns in an interview Saturday with Fox News host Kayleigh McEnany.
From destroyed camera poles to viral signs blocking surveillance lenses, Americans are pushing back against neighborhood surveillance cameras.
Automated license plate readers, known as Flock cameras, are used by law enforcement in dozens of states to record vehicle data that can aid criminal investigations, but residents in communities with the cameras have raised concerns about privacy and potential misuse by law enforcement.
The pushback has even reached Capitol Hill, where Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., proposed banning the technology outright and Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., has pushed to cut federal funding for local installations.
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Speaking on “Saturday in America,” Langley argued the technology is vital for safety and called for compromise.
“When people talk about just one of these, privacy or safety, they’re prioritizing the wrong thing, and what we have to prioritize as a country is compromise,” Langley told Fox News. “How do we have our safety, and how do we balance privacy?”
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Flock Safety’s website describes the tools as “technology that helps communities deter crime, respond to emergencies, and investigate safety incidents.” The company’s website states that it aims to balance public safety and privacy.
Some opponents have taken their concerns directly to the cameras. Earlier in August, Fox News correspondent Danamarie McNicholl reported on a man in St. Petersburg, Florida, who held a “Down with the Flock” sign in front of a camera lens as a form of peaceful protest.
“My biggest concern is I don’t want people to know where I go and when I go. That’s my business, not anyone else’s,” Carl Gunn told McNicholl.
Flock cameras have also been reported vandalized or stolen in New York, Minnesota, California and Illinois. Langley said the issue is not so black and white, noting that Flock has helped law enforcement in over a million investigations and helped locate more than 10,000 missing people.
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He said the company is focused on ensuring the technology is used for good, including by recommending seven-day data retention limits and holding those who misuse the system accountable.
“Today, it is too often that in Flock and in other technologies, there’s no regulation. There’s no accountability, and we think that’s wrong,” Langley said.
“We announced changes that required auditing, that required using our audit assistance tool, which detects abnormal behavior, and we’re calling on state regulators to focus less on banning this type of technology and more [on] holding our law enforcement community accountable.”
