Update to California Agencies from Flock Safety

This is an e-mail received by the Palo Alto Police Department on February 3, 2026 from Flock Safety:

 

Flock takes nothing more seriously than building best-in-class public safety technology that also enables accountability and transparency. As renewed attention is being given to historical sharing settings in certain communities in California, we want to lay out the upgrades and new features we have already put in place to ensure that strict compliance with California law is as seamless as possible for our users. 

Let’s start with the bedrock principle we operate under: All Flock customers own and control the data collected by our technology on their behalf. 

Sharing Settings – Upgraded March-June 2025

Flock customers choose whether or not to share their data with any other law enforcement agency, and sharing relationships can be revoked at any time at the discretion of the customer. Sharing settings, sharing relationships, and each instance of data sharing are fully visible at all times to every agency via the user interface and the audit logs that our system creates to ensure transparency and accountability. 

That being said, prior to recent upgrades, we recognize that out-of-state sharing occurred in some communities in California, and that clearer guidance and stronger safeguards would have better supported our customers' compliance with local laws and policies.  We take this commitment seriously and proactively improved our system, controls, and communication to promote lawful and transparent use of our platform.  

Specifically, to make compliance with California law easier, last year Flock made a series of statewide upgrades to the sharing interface: 

  • Disabled the National Lookup feature for all California agencies (March 2025). 
  • Blocked out-of-state agencies from creating data sharing relationships with California agencies (June 2025).
  • Reviewed current sharing settings and, with customer consent, revoked any remaining 1:1 sharing with out-of-state agencies (June 2025).   

It is no longer possible for California agencies to create sharing relationships with out-of-state or federal agencies, either deliberately or by mistake, and such sharing cannot be enabled by Flock. 

Search Filters – Applied in July 2025

Applied across California, the Search Filter feature automatically flags and blocks keywords for prohibited searches involving 1) immigration and 2) reproductive healthcare. If a search containing a blocked keyword is attempted, agency data will not be queried and no data will be returned.

Mandatory Offense Type Dropdown – Applied in December 2025

Originating from NIBRS offense categories, an offense type is now required to perform any search. This feature creates clarity in audit reports and helps guard against prohibited use cases. 

Roundtable Sessions – Bay Area (Next Week)

Your feedback is what helps us make our product better every single day. We will be hosting a few virtual roundtable sessions next week for Bay Area customers. If you'd like to register, here's the link to the available spots: Registration Here

 

I want to reiterate, with all confidence, that Flock’s LPR system can be tailored to comply with each jurisdiction’s laws and policies. We value our partnership with your agency and look forward to the continued impact we can make together. 

Sincerely,

Chris Colwell
SVP Customer Experience | Flock Safety

 

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