Ensuring Local Compliance

Over the last few weeks, there have been conflicting reports in the media about Flock’s relationship with federal agencies, and some of our public statements inadvertently provided inaccurate information. We reviewed the same audit logs that enable our customers to conduct reviews of their product usage to gain a full picture of what happened. 

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While it is true that Flock does not presently have a contractual relationship with any U.S. Department of Homeland Security agencies, we have engaged in limited pilots with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), to assist those agencies in combatting human trafficking and fentanyl distribution. 

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We clearly communicated poorly. We also didn’t create distinct permissions and protocols in the Flock system to ensure local compliance for federal agency users. 

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I appreciate the sensitivities surrounding local and federal cooperation on law enforcement matters, and I understand that in order to allow communities to align with their laws and societal values, these definitions and product features are critical.

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As of last week, all ongoing federal pilots have been paused.

Our Next Steps

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In order to work with federal law enforcement agencies, while remaining committed to the values of the communities across the country we currently serve, we are engaging in a coordinated product, engineering, and policy effort to ensure that each of our client agencies better understand how to control their sharing relationships. I’ve asked Flock’s new Chief Legal Officer Dan Haley to lead our ongoing company-wide effort to ensure users are able to determine, in compliance with local laws, regulations, and community norms, whether and when to share their data. We will be updating the list of new compliance tools publicly on a regular basis. 

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All federal customers will be designated within Flock as a distinct “Federal” user category in the system. This distinction will give local agencies better information to determine their sharing settings. Moving forward, federal users will not be added to Statewide or Nationwide lookup. Any sharing request, audit or display of these agencies will clearly delineate that an organization is federal.

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We are making a robust investment in training, in order to support agencies understanding how to remain in compliance with their local laws. We are reaching out directly to our customers to offer additional training on the Flock system, sharing settings and user roles, and are making this a part of our customer forums moving forward. We will also be correcting the public record in the places where we inadvertently provided incomplete information.

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Serving as the leader of Flock Safety is the most consequential act of my professional career. Every day I am reminded of the positive impact we have on the world from recovering missing children, to solving homicides, to returning stolen cars. Everyone deserves to be safe. I believe together we can improve public safety while staying true to our unique community values.