Policy Pulse: Compliance Doesn’t Have to Be So Hard

There is a certain cruelty in crime, not simply in the act itself but in its aftermath. The bewildered families left behind, the long shadow of unanswered questions, the silence of what we cannot explain. A child struck in Dallas, his future nearly stolen. A bombing in Palm Springs that might have shattered generations. Eight hundred fentanyl pills in Lake County, each one a bullet aimed at strangers who would never see it coming. Because the truth today is, despite violent crime trending downward, most crime still remains stubbornly, maddeningly unsolved.

These stories are not statistics. They are not the cold abstractions of policy briefings that sit in the stale air of conference rooms. They are real lives. They are real communities forever changed. And if there is one lesson they teach us, it is this: crime is solvable, but it does not respect boundaries. Not the sacred boundary of your personal, private life or home. Not the invisible line between cities. Not the rugged miles between states. Certainly not the legal constructs we call jurisdictions.

That is why cooperation between law enforcement agencies, private companies, individuals, technology builders, and policy makers is not a luxury. It is a necessity. When a kidnapped baby from California is recovered in Arizona, or when a double murder suspect flees Texas and is located in Arkansas, it is not because of any one town or one sheriff or one department. It is because neighbors, however far apart, recognized a shared responsibility. This is in fact the genesis of Flock Safety’s name, mission, and product vision: the recognition that it takes all of us working together to impact crime.

The path to cooperation has always been uneven

America’s strength lies in its differences, and the wisdom of our structure as a federation to ensure those differences are protected. We designate power to local officials, governed by the Constitution above all, to ensure that individual communities can govern themselves in a way that feels authentic to their own values. 

But what this also means is that compliance in America is hard. Every jurisdiction has its own laws, its own mandates, its own interpretation of how justice must be administered based on its own values. What is permissible in Texas may be restricted in California. What is authorized in Illinois may be forbidden in Georgia. And they turn the promise of shared safety into a patchwork of obligations, the burden of each one threatening to unravel the whole.

This is not an issue that’s unique to Flock. This is a uniquely American issue.

Introducing Policy Pulse

And yet, we will not shrink from our responsibility. In fact, central to Flock’s ethos is our commitment to democracy. Flock doesn’t dictate the rules and we will not erode democratic autonomy. We’re presenting this new blog series, Policy Pulse, because the burden of compliance - navigating this messy lattice of rules and oversight - should not stand in the way of public safety. And so our commitment is not just to solve crimes, but to ensure the act of crime-solving is lawful, transparent, and easy.

Any user. Any city. Any legal framework. Flock will support the ability of those who have shouldered the heavy burden of crimefighting to carry that load. Whether Dallas or Palm Springs, Illinois or Arkansas. Whether you are protecting one business or an entire county. We must ensure that Flock provides both the technology to catch the guilty, and the clarity to assure the innocent that their rights remain intact. We provide tools that make it easier to see what you are doing within the Flock system, know with whom you are sharing, audit that usage, and comply with the mandates of law.

We provide the tools, but your city owns the data. Your city controls how it metes out justice.

In a country where rules compete, where compliance is often the enemy of cooperation, we’re committed to offering something different: the chance to reconcile safety with sovereignty, progress with principle. Because the work of Flock is not only catching the wrongdoer. It is proving, to every community, that we can do so without compromising the values that make our communities what they are.