flock saftey
Flock Safety — Research Notes
Company Overview
Flock Safety was founded in 2017 by three Georgia Tech alumni: Garrett Langley (CEO), Matt Feury, and Paige Todd.[5][11][12][13][14] The company began as a side project, with the co-founders hand-building their first video surveillance cameras around Langley's dining room table.[13] After a DeKalb County detective told Langley that his camera had helped solve a home break-in, Langley called his co-founders and told them to quit their jobs to pursue the idea full-time.[13]
Flock is a private company, so its exact ownership split is not publicly disclosed. Major investors include venture capital firms such as Founders Fund.
Scale and funding (as of 2025):
Used by over 6,000 municipalities in the United States[23]
Over $950 million raised in venture funding, at a $7.5 billion valuation[24][25]
Over 900 employees as of April 2024[14]
Timeline
Date Event
2017 Company founded by Langley, Feury, and Todd.[5][11][12]
2021 Flock Raven (gunshot detector) launched.[52]
2024 (by) Fixed cameras installed in 4,000+ cities across 42 states.[15][16][17]
2024-06 Norfolk, VA Circuit Court rules warrantless ALPR data collection violates the Fourth Amendment.[18]
2024-10 Flock acquires Aerodome, a law enforcement drone manufacturer; announces plans for its own drone line.[22]
2024-10 Institute for Justice files federal lawsuit against Norfolk PD over Flock ALPR use.[20][82][83]
2025-05 Flock Nova ("public safety data platform") reported to be in Early Access with law enforcement.[49]
2025 Flock data reported to be queried for immigration enforcement; pilot program with CBP/HSI later halted in August.[85][86][87]
2025-10 Partnership announced with Amazon Ring for sharing resident video with public safety agencies.[27][28]
2025-10 Raven devices announced to begin detecting "human distress" (e.g., screaming).[56]
2025-10/11 Ring/Flock integration cancelled following backlash over a Super Bowl LX ad.[29][30]
Products
Automatic License Plate Readers (ALPR) — Falcon & Sparrow
Flock's core product line, the Falcon and Sparrow, are stationary cameras that monitor traffic and photograph the rear of passing vehicles.[31] Computer vision reads license plates and identifies other visual characteristics, sending the data to a central server over a cellular network. Flock logs this data — including time and location — in a searchable database and cross-references it against the National Crime Information Center and state/local police watchlists, alerting nearby officers on a match.[32][33]
Unlike traffic enforcement cameras, ALPRs are used for surveillance and investigations, not traffic law enforcement.[34][35][36] According to researcher Jill Walker Rettberg, the cameras are designed to blend into the urban environment.[37]
Key claims and capabilities:
"Vehicle fingerprint technology" — identifies make, model, color, and distinguishing features (mismatched panels, bumper stickers, dents, temporary plates) for investigative search.[17][38][39]
Can capture vehicles traveling up to 100 mph, at distances up to 75 feet, in any lighting condition.[34]
Marketed as focusing on "vehicles, not people."[40] However, the Condor line tracks moving people as well as vehicles,[41] and Flock advertises the ability to "identify people and vehicles."[42]
FreeForm — a natural-language search tool. Public records requests revealed police using it to search for individuals by race, gender, clothing, height, tattoos, and perceived political affiliation.[43]
Most units run on solar power with rechargeable batteries, allowing deployment without utility access.[37][44] They are typically mounted on manufacturer-supplied poles, or affixed to existing lampposts/telephone poles.[44][45]
Flock also integrates its ALPR and vehicle-identification software into existing video systems, including Axon dashcams used in police vehicles,[47][48] and its network can reportedly be integrated into predictive policing platforms like Palantir.[37]
Flock's primary ALPR competitor is Motorola Solutions.[32][46]
Nova — Person Lookup Tool
Reported in May 2025, Nova is described by Flock as a "public safety data platform." It supplements ALPR data with information from data breaches, public records, and commercially available data to track specific individuals without a warrant, and was already in Early Access use by law enforcement as of that reporting.[49] The Electronic Frontier Foundation described Nova as a "dystopian panopticon."[50] Following reporting by 404 Media, Flock removed data-breach information from Nova.[51]
Raven — Gunshot Detector
Launched in 2021, the Raven is an audio gunfire locator comparable to ShotSpotter.[52] It records audio in 5-second increments and uses AI to detect gunfire in the clips, estimating location and alerting police on detection.[53] Like the ALPRs, units mount on manufacturer-supplied poles and run on solar power.[54] Flock claims at least 1,2
