Fewer Victims, Stronger Safeguards: The Case for Principled Federal Collaboration

At Flock Safety, our mission has always been clear: help communities stay safe while earning and keeping public trust. That mission doesn’t change when the stakes are high - it becomes more important.

Recent events, including the multi-day search for the Brown University mass shooting suspect or the terrorist bombing plot in Los Angeles or the Nancy Guthrie disappearance, are all sobering reminders of a reality law enforcement faces every day: violent offenders do not respect jurisdictional boundaries. When a dangerous individual is on the move, time matters. Coordination matters. And access to the right tools, used responsibly, can make the difference between a suspect remaining at large and a community being made safe.

Flock has worked with federal agencies for years to fight crime in our communities. And today, Flock is officially defining a new relationship with federal law enforcement, built on the same foundation of transparency, accountability, and respect for civil liberties that underpins our entire company. Certain law enforcement contracts are designated “law enforcement sensitive” and, as a result, cannot be discussed publicly. That being said, Flock has no contracts with ICE or DHS sub agencies.

Looking back: Why we built Flock the way we did

From the beginning, Flock was built differently.

We started with a simple premise: technology should help solve crimes and protect communities while also protecting civil liberties. And that belief shaped every decision we made, from what data we collect, what we don’t collect, how long information is retained, and who controls access. And the courts have overwhelmingly agreed that this approach works in concert with the Constitution of the United States.

We deliberately designed Flock:

• To be purpose-built for public safety, not generalized monitoring
• So data is owned and controlled by local agencies, not a centralized database
• Transparent and auditable, with clear usage logs and access controls

We’ve limited data retention by default, before any laws mandated it. We’ve required local agency data ownership. We’ve built state-compliant audit logs into the system. And we’ve been clear that trust is not a feature, it’s a prerequisite.

But we’ve also never believed that safety stops at city limits.

The reality: Crime and threats move faster than jurisdictions

In cases involving violent crime, missing persons, or active fugitives, offenders often cross city, county, and state lines within hours. Small, local agencies do extraordinary work, but they are not designed or resourced to operate alone in those moments.

In fact, it is a uniquely American reality that the United States has roughly 18,000 independent law enforcement agencies, many of which are relatively small and have only a limited number of sworn officers. By contrast, countries like France and Japan operate far more centralized policing systems, with national agencies supported by regional and local branches.

Because of the decentralized structure of law enforcement in the United States, federal agencies exist in part to address precisely these scenarios:

• When threats span jurisdictions
• When coordination must happen quickly
• When information from many local agencies must be responsibly connected

When a suspect like the Brown University shooter is on the run, the question isn’t whether agencies will collaborate. They already do. The real question is whether that collaboration is supported by modern, accountable tools, or slowed by fragmentation and outdated processes.

Flock already helps thousands of local agencies stop sex traffickers, recover kidnapped children, and locate dangerous suspects. Not working with federal law enforcement in moments of legitimate public-safety urgency wouldn’t protect civil liberties, it would introduce friction where speed and coordination save lives.

Why collaboration does not mean compromise

At Flock, collaboration comes with conditions.

Our partnership with federal law enforcement will uphold the same principles we require everywhere else, but with expanded guardrails to guide any sharing relationships:

Local control remains the same

Flock data belongs to the agency that owns the cameras. There is no backdoor into Flock. Any access is explicitly permission-based and opt-in by the local agency. In fact, we’re going a step further. In states like California and Virginia, state law is clear that federal agencies are not allowed to access ALPR data for any purpose. Therefore, we will not allow other federal agencies to “discover” that CA or VA agencies exist.

Federal law enforcement will have a list of local police agencies that they can request access to those local networks. However, similar to CA and VA, our default setting will be to make ALL local police agencies undiscoverable by federal law enforcement. Meaning, in order for an agency to establish a sharing relationship with federal law enforcement, the local agency must pass through three distinct “Gates.”

1. The local agency must explicitly allow federal law enforcement to discover that they exist within the Flock system. This is Off by default.
2. Federal law enforcement must then request access to that system
3. The local agency must then accept federal law enforcement’s share request

Use must be tied to legitimate public-safety objectives

This is about serious crimes, active threats, and investigations where coordination is necessary, not generalized intelligence gathering. Every query of local agency data is explicitly recorded with a NIBRS-based offense type drop down reason associated with it.

Transparency and accountability are non-negotiable

Customer audit logs are transparent and immutable. Every access request is logged. Every search is traceable. Agencies remain accountable to their communities for how the technology is used and they have full control over it.

Guardrails matter most when stakes are highest

High-risk moments demand more oversight, not less. That’s when clear policies, human judgment, and inter-agency checks are essential.

Our work with federal law enforcement applies these principles at the scale modern public safety requires. 

Responsibility meets urgency

Public safety leaders consistently tell us the same thing: technology is most valuable when it helps close the gap between information and action, without creating new risks.

The public understands this nuance. People want dangerous individuals apprehended. They want missing people found. And they expect safeguards to be in place so tools are not misused once the crisis passes.

The reality is that technology like Flock is already being used to solve crimes every day. In fact, nearly all of our competitors in the public safety technology space have active contracts with the federal government, but few have dedicated the engineering resources to do so openly and with unabashed transparency. The responsible path forward is not isolation, it’s principled integration.

If companies like Flock refuse to engage, others with fewer safeguards will fill the void. We believe the better approach is to lead, set standards, and prove that collaboration and civil liberties can coexist.

Our guiding commitments

As we engage in partnerships that include federal coordination, we remain anchored to these principles:

• Safety with limits: Technology should focus on specific threats, not broad populations.
• Human judgment always: Tools generate leads, not conclusions.
• Auditable by design: Oversight is built in, not bolted on.
• Transparency earns trust: Communities deserve to understand how and why tools are used.
• Local control: Every community that is part of the Flock ecosystem controls access to its own data, without qualification or condition.

These are not talking points. They are operational requirements.

Moving forward together

Violence tests institutions. It tests technology. And it tests values.

In moments like this, the easy path is to retreat, to say “not our problem” or “not our role.” But public safety doesn’t work that way. Communities expect collaboration, competence, and care.

Flock was built to help solve real problems in the real world. That means standing firm on our principles and stepping up when coordination matters most.

Working with federal law enforcement - responsibly, transparently, and with clear guardrails - is a crucially impactful extension of our mission that will make communities across the country safer.

Our goal remains the same as it has always been: fewer victims, safer communities, and technology that earns trust by how it is built and how it is used.

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