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

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Flock CEO Garrett Langley said that his company has not ended any contracts with its customers over abuse of its products. Speaking to TechCrunch editor-in-chief Connie Loizos at the Disrupt 2026 conference in San Francisco, Langley responded to criticisms facing the company about the misuse of its license plate reader cameras by police departments.

Flock 首席执行官 Garrett Langley 表示，该公司尚未因产品滥用问题终止与任何客户的合同。在旧金山举行的 Disrupt 2026 大会上，Langley 在接受 TechCrunch 总编辑 Connie Loizos 采访时，回应了有关该公司车牌识别摄像头被警察部门滥用的批评。

It comes after streams of reporting identifying dozens of police officers who have been arrested, fired, or told to resign after being caught abusing access to Flock’s nationwide database of license plate detections, oftentimes to stalk people without permission. Langley told Loizos that the company would end a relationship with a customer where there was clear widespread abuse of its systems.

此前，多篇报道指出，数十名警察因滥用 Flock 的全国车牌识别数据库（通常是为了未经许可跟踪他人）而被捕、解雇或被要求辞职。Langley 向 Loizos 表示，如果客户明确存在大规模滥用其系统的行为，公司将会终止合作关系。

But, the CEO said, it has not to date “fired” a customer, as he put it, such as a police department or law enforcement agency. Langley said Flock had the debate internally, but argued that the company should not take away its product from a community that might need it in its efforts to fight crime.

但这位首席执行官表示，迄今为止，公司尚未“解雇”过任何客户（如警察部门或执法机构）。Langley 称 Flock 内部曾对此进行过讨论，但他认为，公司不应从可能需要该产品来打击犯罪的社区中撤走服务。

“If a customer knowingly broke the law, we would fire them immediately. That’s very easy,” Langley said. “Most of the debate is nuanced into ‘what if two officers out of fifty were caught?’ Today, we haven’t fired any customers, but it’s not off the table in the case of some pretty drastic law-abiding issue,” added Langley.

“如果客户明知故犯触犯法律，我们会立即解雇他们。这很简单，”Langley 说。“大部分争议在于细微之处，比如‘如果五十名警察中有两名被抓了怎么办？’目前，我们还没有解雇任何客户，但如果出现严重的守法问题，我们不排除这种可能性，”他补充道。

The abuse of Flock’s systems and the data it collects is the latest in an array of controversies embroiling the Atlanta, Georgia-based maker of license plate reader cameras. Flock has more than 100,000 cameras around the United States, which allow local police departments and federal agencies to track the whereabouts of vehicle license plates and people as they pass by.

对 Flock 系统及其所收集数据的滥用，是这家总部位于佐治亚州亚特兰大的车牌识别摄像头制造商所卷入的一系列争议中的最新事件。Flock 在美国各地拥有超过 10 万台摄像头，允许当地警察部门和联邦机构追踪过往车辆的车牌及人员行踪。

By allowing its law enforcement customers to track license plates outside of their jurisdictions, some police departments can track cars across the entire country through Flock’s national central database.

通过允许执法客户追踪其管辖范围之外的车牌，一些警察部门能够通过 Flock 的全国中央数据库追踪全国范围内的车辆。

Protest outside Disrupt during Flock interview Flock has become a flashpoint in the surveillance debate, prompting towns, cities, and communities to reject the company’s cameras by canceling their contracts or allowing them to expire, citing privacy fears. There have been multiple reports of Flock reactivating cameras against their customers’ wishes, prompting local residents to tape trash bags over the cameras and other times destroying them.

在 Flock 接受采访时，Disrupt 会场外发生了抗议活动。Flock 已成为监控辩论的焦点，促使许多城镇和社区以隐私担忧为由，通过取消合同或让合同到期不再续约来抵制该公司的摄像头。有多次报道称，Flock 在违背客户意愿的情况下重新激活了摄像头，导致当地居民用垃圾袋封住摄像头，甚至将其损毁。

While Langley spoke on the Disrupt stage, demonstrators gathered outside the venue to protest against Flock’s AI-powered surveillance, wearing 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 behind them. Others carried signs declaring “Flock off,” or “Flock = ICE.”

当 Langley 在 Disrupt 舞台上发言时，示威者聚集在场外抗议 Flock 的人工智能监控。他们身穿《使女的故事》中的红色长袍，头上戴着纸板制作的 Flock 摄像头模型，身后的大喇叭播放着电影《1984》的片段。其他人则举着写有“Flock off”或“Flock = ICE”的标语。

Flock does not have a direct contract with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), but the agency has reportedly accessed Flock data in the past by collaborating with local police departments that use Flock cameras.

Flock 与美国移民和海关执法局（ICE）没有直接合同，但据报道，该机构过去曾通过与使用 Flock 摄像头的当地警察部门合作，获取过 Flock 的数据。

Ashley Ortiz, an organizer with local progressive activist group The Wolves, told TechCrunch that 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,” said Ortiz.

当地进步激进组织“The Wolves”的组织者 Ashley Ortiz 告诉 TechCrunch，她希望当地立法者能更认真地对待选民对 Flock 的担忧。“我认为 Flock 将成为更多社区建设的起点，因为我们可以围绕‘不喜欢大规模监控’这一两党共识团结起来，”Ortiz 说。

“We have Republicans who join us, conservatives who agree, we have sovereign citizens cutting down Flock cameras, so it’s not just the left who doesn’t want AI-powered mass surveillance.” When asked what questions she has for Langley, Ortiz said, “What about AI-powered mass surveillance should be making us feel safe?”

“有共和党人加入我们，有保守派表示赞同，还有主权公民砍倒 Flock 摄像头，所以不仅仅是左派不想要人工智能大规模监控。”当被问及对 Langley 有什么问题时，Ortiz 说：“人工智能大规模监控的哪一点能让我们感到安全？”

In answer to that, Langley argued, onstage, that its license plate tracking system has been allowing police departments to solve more crimes and to solve them faster. He offered anecdotes, such as a stolen car with a baby in the back seat being found quickly thanks, he said, to Flock systems.

对此，Langley 在台上辩称，其车牌追踪系统一直使警察部门能够侦破更多案件，并提高破案速度。他举了一些例子，比如一辆后座载有婴儿的被盗车辆因 Flock 系统而得以迅速找回。

Still, Flock has also faced criticism for cybersecurity issues, and camera accuracy issues that have resulted in dozens of police stops and wrongful arrests, including a journalist who was driving a review vehicle. Some communities have replaced their Flock contracts with rival surveillance companies, such as Axon, the maker of Taser weapons and police bodycams.

尽管如此，Flock 也因网络安全问题和摄像头准确性问题面临批评，这些问题导致了数十起警察拦截和错误逮捕事件，其中包括一名驾驶评测车辆的记者。一些社区已经用竞争对手的监控公司（如生产泰瑟枪和警察随身摄像头的 Axon）取代了与 Flock 的合同。

On a potential sale to Axon, Langley said the company was not considering a sale. “No, we’ve no desire to sell the company.”

关于可能出售给 Axon 的传闻，Langley 表示公司并未考虑出售。“不，我们没有出售公司的意愿。”