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Flock CEO tells police chiefs backlash is not real, 404 Media reports
404 Media says leaked audio from a private police conference in Orlando shows Flock CEO Garrett Langley telling chiefs that anti-Flock protests are not real and that social-media criticism is driven by bots.
- New headline Was: “In Leaked Audio, Flock CEO Tells Cops Backlash to the Company Isn’t Real”
- Our desk filed its story
- 404media.co is now reporting this
Flock Safety chief executive Garrett Langley told police chiefs at a private conference Sunday that protests against the automatic license plate reader company are not real, according to leaked audio obtained by 404 Media1.
The remarks came at the International Association of Chiefs of Police conference in Orlando, Florida, during a fireside chat with IACP president David Rausch, director of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, 404 Media reported1. The conference runs Saturday through Tuesday and draws more than 16,000 public safety officials, the outlet said, citing IACP materials1.
Langley said social-media criticism of Flock was largely inorganic, claiming chatter had fallen about 95 percent from July and 50 percent overnight after Ukraine struck a Russian data center, 404 Media reported1. The outlet said he offered no evidence and that the data-center claim repeats a theory 404 Media has previously described as disproven1. "It's anonymous bots, and so it is not real," Langley said, according to the audio1.
He also said his wife told him he should never apologize, while acknowledging he had made mistakes, including this summer, 404 Media reported1. The outlet said Langley had earlier apologized in media interviews for calling DeFlock, a group that maps Flock cameras, a terroristic organization1. He said he would prefer not to do more press interviews, according to the report1.
Flock sells ALPRs and other cameras that log license plates, vehicle color, make and model as cars pass, creating timestamped movement records that customers can query without a warrant, 404 Media said1. The company markets a national network; a recent count cited by the outlet put it at about 80,000 cameras1. 404 Media has previously reported local lookups for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and a Texas search for a woman who self-administered an abortion1.
The outlet said dozens of cities have canceled Flock contracts over about 18 months amid reporting on police misuse, false arrests and immigration enforcement1. Lawmakers have proposed bills to restrict the technology, according to that account1. Flock did not respond to 404 Media's request for comment1.
Langley told the audience that new tools in policing go through a period of intense debate and that he thought the industry was near the bottom of that cycle, 404 Media reported1.
