Cities terminate Flock contracts at record pace in August
Cities terminate Flock contracts at record pace in August
八月份城市终止 Flock 合同的速度创下历史新高
New data compiled by a Bay Area anti-surveillance advocacy group shows that not only are American localities dropping cameras from Flock Safety, but they are doing it at an accelerating rate. 湾区一个反监控倡导组织汇编的最新数据显示，美国各地不仅在弃用 Flock Safety 的摄像头，而且弃用的速度正在加快。
Communities from Lansing, Michigan, to Pflugerville, Texas, are ending their relationship with Flock, largely over concerns regarding out-of-control surveillance, unwanted data sharing, high expenses, and reports of police abusing the tool. 从密歇根州的兰辛市到德克萨斯州的普夫卢格维尔市，各社区纷纷终止与 Flock 的合作，主要原因是担心监控失控、数据被非自愿共享、高昂的费用以及有关警察滥用该工具的报道。
Secure Justice, an Oakland-based advocacy group, has recorded 214 cities and counties that have dropped Flock since 2021. Of those, 90 ended their relationship with Flock in August 2026 alone, a fourfold increase compared to the previous month. Put another way: During the last 30 days, an average of three localities per day have halted contracts with Flock. 总部位于奥克兰的倡导组织 Secure Justice 记录显示，自 2021 年以来，已有 214 个城市和县弃用了 Flock。其中，仅 2026 年 8 月就有 90 个地区终止了与 Flock 的合作，比上个月增加了四倍。换句话说：在过去 30 天里，平均每天有三个地区停止了与 Flock 的合同。
“Looking at that image, it’s gone parabolic!” Brian Hofer, the executive director of Secure Justice, told Ars. Hofer, who until 2025 served as chair of the Oakland Privacy Advisory Commission for 10 years, recognized that while 210 remains relatively small, the momentum is growing rapidly. “When you see that now 165 [cancellations] are just in the first almost eight months of this year… At that speed, if it goes another year, we’re talking serious money,” he said. “That number is going to get huge, fast.” “看看那张图表，它呈抛物线式增长！”Secure Justice 执行董事 Brian Hofer 对 Ars 说道。Hofer 在 2025 年前曾担任奥克兰隐私咨询委员会主席长达 10 年，他承认虽然 210 这个数字相对较小，但增长势头非常迅猛。“当你看到今年前八个月就有 165 起（取消合同）时……照这个速度，如果再持续一年，那将涉及巨额资金，”他说，“这个数字会迅速变得非常庞大。”
When presented with this data, Flock Safety did not express concern. “So far in 2026, new city partnerships have outpaced nonrenewals by approximately 10 to one,” emailed Courtney Terlecki, a company spokesperson. “That does not mean every community will make the same decision, and we understand that public safety technology deserves thoughtful public discussion and community engagement.” She declined to say precisely how many new customers Flock has taken on this year, but the company has repeatedly said that its products are “trusted by over 5,000 communities.” 当被问及这些数据时，Flock Safety 并未表现出担忧。公司发言人 Courtney Terlecki 在邮件中表示：“2026 年迄今为止，新建立的城市合作伙伴关系与未续约的数量之比约为 10 比 1。这并不意味着每个社区都会做出相同的决定，我们理解公共安全技术值得深入的公众讨论和社区参与。”她拒绝透露今年 Flock 新增客户的具体数量，但该公司一再声称其产品“受到超过 5,000 个社区的信赖”。
Criticism
批评
After extensive criticism, Flock CEO Garrett Langley wrote in a recent blog post that Flock would reduce data retention defaults from 30 days to seven, among other privacy-minded changes. Last Friday, Flock’s top lawyer wrote in another blog post that its newly modified terms of use “expressly prohibit customers and their users from using Flock Services to mislead, harass, stalk, or otherwise impose upon or violate the legal rights of another person.” 在遭受广泛批评后，Flock 首席执行官 Garrett Langley 在最近的一篇博客文章中写道，Flock 将把默认数据保留期限从 30 天缩短至 7 天，并进行其他旨在保护隐私的调整。上周五，Flock 的首席律师在另一篇博客中写道，其新修改的使用条款“明确禁止客户及其用户利用 Flock 服务去误导、骚扰、跟踪或以其他方式侵犯他人的合法权利”。
Those efforts have done little to quell political scrutiny. This week, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) announced that he was “investigating Flock Safety’s collection, retention, and dissemination of the data generated by its artificial intelligence surveillance cameras.” Additionally, on Wednesday, after two Florida police officers were arrested for misusing Flock, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis gave a speech in which he said that Flock cameras were “out of control” in his state. “When I see, like, a police officer using this to track, like, an ex-girlfriend, I’m like, you know what the hell’s going on?” DeSantis said. 这些努力几乎未能平息政治审查。本周，参议员 Josh Hawley（共和党，密苏里州）宣布，他正在“调查 Flock Safety 对其人工智能监控摄像头所生成数据的收集、保留和传播情况”。此外，周三，在两名佛罗里达州警察因滥用 Flock 被捕后，共和党州长 Ron DeSantis 发表演讲称，Flock 摄像头在他的州已经“失控”。“当我看到有警察用这个来跟踪前女友时，我就在想，这到底是怎么回事？”DeSantis 说道。
Even advocates who have followed the pervasive expansion of automated license plate reader (ALPR) technology—which predated Flock—are surprised. “Maybe in the past it didn’t feel like every red light cam really meant a pair of eyes was watching you, but with AI, that’s increasingly becoming the reality,” Jake Laperruque, deputy director of the Center of Democracy and Technology’s Security and Surveillance Project, emailed Ars. “And we’re already seeing how AI can morph ALPRs into a mass surveillance dragnet,” he added. “Flock lets its cameras be searched for keywords and people, cities are incorporating real-time facial recognition into camera networks, Border Patrol is using AI to scan ALPR data for driving patterns [and] pulling people over whenever the AI deems their driving ‘suspicious.’” 即使是那些一直关注自动车牌识别 (ALPR) 技术（早于 Flock 出现）广泛扩张的倡导者也感到惊讶。“过去可能觉得并非每个红绿灯摄像头都意味着有一双眼睛在盯着你，但有了人工智能，这正日益成为现实，”民主与技术中心安全与监控项目副主任 Jake Laperruque 在给 Ars 的邮件中写道。“我们已经看到人工智能如何将 ALPR 变成大规模监控的罗网，”他补充道。“Flock 允许通过关键词和人物搜索其摄像头记录，城市正在将实时人脸识别整合到摄像头网络中，边境巡逻队正在利用人工智能扫描 ALPR 数据以分析驾驶模式，并在人工智能认为驾驶行为‘可疑’时拦截车辆。”
The scrutiny has become bipartisan after numerous widely reported incidents. “A Texas Sheriff’s Office used it to search for a woman who had had an abortion, and federal agents proposed using it outside gun shows,” Catherine Crump, a UC Berkeley law professor, emailed Ars. “It definitely does not help that this is yet another Silicon Valley product that no one asked for that threatens to reshape people’s lives.” 在多起被广泛报道的事件发生后，这种审查已演变为两党共同关注的问题。“德克萨斯州的一个治安官办公室曾用它来搜寻一名堕胎的女性，联邦特工也曾提议在枪展外使用它，”加州大学伯克利分校法学教授 Catherine Crump 在给 Ars 的邮件中写道。“这又是另一个没人要求、却威胁要重塑人们生活的硅谷产品，这绝对无助于改善现状。”
Update, August 28: Secure Justice has updated its data and now says that 93 jurisdictions (up from 90) have ended Flock contracts this month alone. 8 月 28 日更新：Secure Justice 更新了数据，称仅本月就有 93 个司法管辖区（此前为 90 个）终止了与 Flock 的合同。