Audits, a proposed city ordinance and a push in Washington are testing the license plate reader maker in the city where it was founded. Flock Safety, the license plate reader company built in Atlanta, is under growing pressure at home. Residents are pushing back at public meetings, city leaders are drafting permanent rules and one of Georgia’s U.S. senators is pressing for federal limits. The fight in Flock’s hometown comes as the startup, valued at $7.5 billion in its last reported funding round, shrinks its workforce and loses customers elsewhere. Officials in all four of metro Atlanta’s largest counties have held town halls on the cameras since August. The common complaint is that a tool sold to help catch car thieves and find missing people now logs the movements of ordinary drivers. Critics say it has too few safeguards against misuse.
A hometown company with a national footprint
Garrett Langley established Flock in 2017 alongside two fellow Georgia Tech alumni, Paige Todd and Matt Feury. According to Langley, the venture was launched following a series of vehicle break-ins near his home. These devices capture images of transit vehicles, recording license plates along with other attributes into a database that law enforcement can easily query. Flock reports deploying upwards of 120,000 scanners across 49 states. Financial backers have fueled this expansion. During March 2025, a funding round totaling $275 million spearheaded by Andreessen Horowitz pushed the enterprise valuation to $7.5 billion, while management noted then that recurring yearly revenue had surpassed $300 million. CNN was not provided with the exact count of operating devices deployed throughout the Atlanta area by the firm. Meanwhile, DeFlock, a community-driven mapping initiative, registers upwards of 6,000 plate scanners belonging to Flock and competing manufacturers spanning a 29-county territory.
What is driving the backlash
Much of the anger stems from cases in which officers allegedly used the network for personal reasons. Citing Georgia Bureau of Investigation figures, Sen. Raphael Warnock stated in September that 19 law enforcement or emergency personnel statewide had been arrested and charged this year regarding camera misuse. Several accusations involve officers tracking current or former romantic partners.Mistakes have also drawn scrutiny. Back in May, police departments in the Atlanta suburbs of Dunwoody and Doraville held a 26-year-old man at gunpoint after a Flock notification linked his automobile to a domestic violence suspect. Authorities released him as soon as they verified he was the wrong individual, according to CNN.Dunwoody has emerged as a central issue. Public records requests filed by a resident revealed that non-law enforcement employees of Flock had accessed certain municipal cameras for testing and sales presentations. In April, 404 Media disclosed that demonstration feeds featured a Jewish community center, specifically a kids’ gymnastics area. Langley issued an apology, and Flock agreed to halt using Dunwoody information for promotional activities and conduct subsequent demos in public locations, CNN noted. Certain residents still demand that the municipality terminate its agreements.Organized resistance is likewise apparent. During August, an alliance spearheaded by Community Movement Builders demonstrated outside Atlanta City Hall. “We want Flock to be gone,” organizer Kamau Franklin told Fox 5 Atlanta. Several devices have been targeted by vandalism, including one close to Georgia Tech.
Atlanta tightens rules but keeps the cameras
City officials have chosen regulation over removal. At Mayor Andre Dickens’ request, the Atlanta Police Department reviewed 115,578 Flock searches made between January and early September. It flagged 79, or about 0.07%, for further investigation. Police stressed that a flag is not a confirmed violation.The department then rewrote its procedures. It cut off direct access for outside agencies, revoked logins held by retired reserve officers, spelled out prohibited searches and penalties, and added monthly compliance audits. Dickens also proposed a citywide ordinance that would require annual independent reviews of high-risk systems and quarterly public reports. Vendors such as Flock would have to write city privacy, retention and data-sharing limits into their contracts. A council committee is still reviewing the measure. City officials have said they do not intend to drop Flock, and the Atlanta Police Foundation calls the cameras invaluable.Pressure is building above the city level as well. In September, Warnock, a Georgia Democrat, and Sen. Katie Britt, an Alabama Republican, asked the Justice Department to issue guidelines on police use of plate readers and to disclose how much federal money has funded them.
Flock’s response
Flock argues that the answer is better guardrails. In an Aug. 13 blog post, Langley announced that the default data retention period would fall from 30 days to seven. Police will have to enter a case code for every search by the end of 2026, with emergency searches flagged for review. The automated audit tool that flags unusual activity will become mandatory, and accounts showing abnormal behavior will be locked automatically.Langley told CNN that the mayor’s proposal was “a step in the right direction.” He said he is open to regulation and expects rules to be set state by state. Civil liberties advocates are not persuaded. Chad Marlow of the ACLU told CNN the new guardrails repeat measures that have failed before.
The commercial stakes
The scrutiny is spreading beyond Georgia. A Newsweek analysis of DeFlock data counted 149 cities and counties that canceled or rejected Flock contracts or switched off cameras between January and August, more than half of them in August, Jalopnik reported. In October, Reuters reported that Flock would shed about 18% of its staff, roughly 270 people, through a voluntary buyout program. A company spokesperson called it “a voluntary program, not a layoff.”The evidence on results is mixed. An August University of South Carolina study cited by CNN found an 11% drop in auto thefts where the cameras were used, with no significant change in other property crime. Atlanta’s ordinance, the outcome of the 79 flagged searches and any federal guidance will now help decide how much room Flock has to operate in the city where it started.
