Flock Cuts Default License Plate Data Retention From 30 Days to 7 as CEO Says 'We Got This One Wrong'

The surveillance company will make its abuse-detection tool mandatory after reports of officers using automatic license plate reader data to stalk ex-partners, including a case involving a former Riverside County sheriff's deputy.

Flock, the surveillance technology company whose automatic license plate readers are used by police departments across the country, is cutting the default period it keeps device data from 30 days to seven and making a previously optional abuse-detection feature mandatory for all customers, according to an interview with chief executive Garrett Langley published by The Verge on August 13, 2026. The seven-day default moves closer to the limits urged by critics including the American Civil Liberties Union, The Verge reported.

The changes follow reports of police officers misusing the company's tools to track ex-romantic partners. Langley told The Verge his thinking had shifted on how much responsibility Flock bears for how law enforcement uses its products. “This is such an obvious way to curb abuse,” he said of the tool that lets agency administrators require case codes for searches, per The Verge. “And I said, ‘Fine. You know what? I think that’s right, and we got this one wrong. We should make it a requirement.’”

What is actually changing

Over the coming weeks, Flock will begin requiring a feature called Audit Assistance, which flags “abnormal search behavior” and immediately locks out suspicious users until an administrator reviews their activity, The Verge reported. All users will also have to enter case codes to run searches. An administrator can override that requirement in emergencies such as tracking a missing child, but those overrides are automatically flagged for review.

Police departments can still choose to lengthen the retention period beyond seven days, or use a new “Evidence Mode” that preserves searches tied to a specific case number, according to The Verge. Data sharing between agencies was previously all-or-nothing; localities can now set granular limits, such as allowing another police department to search their Flock data for a homicide suspect but not for immigration enforcement.

The Southern California case in the record

California prosecutors alleged that a former Riverside County Sheriff's Office deputy used data from Flock to stalk and harass his ex-girlfriend, looking up license plate information on men she was dating, the Palm Desert outlet KESQ reported, as cited by The Verge. In Braselton, Georgia, a police chief searched his ex-girlfriend’s license plate more than 500 times over seven months, The Washington Post reported.

Reports of abuse involving Flock and other automatic license plate readers date back to 2021, according to the nonprofit Institute for Justice, The Verge reported. The Verge's account does not identify which Southern California cities contract with Flock, nor whether federal or out-of-state agencies have run searches against data collected in the Los Angeles area — questions that would have to be answered by the departments themselves.

Adoption has been thin

Audit Assistance launched as a voluntary feature in April, and only a third of agencies working with Flock had turned it on, The Verge reported. The company says identification of abuse went up among those that did. Langley predicted to The Verge that “you are going to see more officers fired and more officers arrested for abusing police power.”

The tone marks a shift. Langley called DeFlock, a site that maps the company’s technology, a “terroristic” group in a Forbes interview last year, then apologized in July and called that characterization a “mistake,” per The Verge. The ACLU and the Electronic Frontier Foundation have accused Flock of misleading the public and officials about the risks of its tools, including the possibility of tracking women seeking abortions; Flock has said officers are prohibited from running searches related to reproductive care in states where such searches are restricted.

Langley pointed to scale as the reason for the change of heart. “I got our July update a week ago, and we helped find almost a thousand missing people, over 22,000 stolen cars — in July,” he told The Verge. “All I guess I’m asking for is for a fair shot.”