- Flock’s CEO has defended his company’s products in the face of criticism
- He said "we shouldn’t pause progress" in the name of privacy
- His comments at times contradicted those on Flock’s website
Flock has repeatedly found itself in hot water over the past few months, with the automated license plate recognition cameras causing controversy amid privacy concerns and widespread public backlash. But speaking on stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, Flock’s CEO dismissed such concerns as being the price of “progress.”
“If we want to live in a society where, if you commit a crime, you have a higher probability of being held accountable, we shouldn’t pause progress,” declared Flock’s Garrett Langley. TechCrunch noted that Langley’s argument positioned Flock as a technology that is “somewhat inevitable” and that the CEO stressed that living in a safer society required citizens giving up their privacy in return.
As noted by TechCrunch, the CEO, “deflected hard questions about the criticism Flock now faces” and presented “tales of the supposed numerous crimes Flock has solved, rather than offer tangible solutions to people’s concerns.”
When asked whether Flock had ended any contracts with law enforcement agencies over abuse of its products, Langley said the company had not “fired” any customers. However, he argued that it “If a customer knowingly broke the law, we would fire them immediately.”
The question of whether Flock has ended its work with any police departments is a pertinent one due to multiple reports of Flock reinstalling its cameras even after local authorities had removed them. Those actions have at times led to people covering Flock cameras in a bid to stop them recording local people.
Recording more than just gunshots
At the event, Langley was also asked about another controversial Flock technology: its cameras’ ability to record and process ambient audio. Privacy advocates have argued that Flock’s initial plans to detect screaming meant its devices would constantly collect human voices and that this amounted to mass surveillance of the public.
Langley pushed back against that idea, saying that the Gunshot Detection feature records “just gunshots” and nothing else. However, Flock’s website paints a very different picture, saying the tool can “detect street takeovers early to stop chaos before it escalates” and has the capability to “expand awareness beyond gunfire with alerts for car crashes, fireworks, and sideshows.”
And in a message to TechCrunch, Flock spokesperson Paris Lewbel said “Flock’s gunshot detection technology is primarily used to detect gunfire but is also capable of detecting fireworks, sideshows, and potential car crashes. CEO Garrett Langley’s remarks were intended to emphasize that Flock’s Audio Detection technology is not designed to monitor conversations or analyze speech and does not currently detect human screaming or distress.”
Despite being given a chance to respond to public worries about Flock’s cameras and their potential for abuse, Langley instead insisted that the devices were a sign of “progress” in society.
It therefore seems likely that Langley’s defiant tone will do little to assuage privacy and surveillance concerns surrounding his company’s products — and that we’ll continue to see them make headlines for all the wrong reasons.
Alex Blake has been fooling around with computers since the early 1990s, and since that time he's learned a thing or two about tech. No more than two things, though. That's all his brain can hold. As well as TechRadar, Alex writes for iMore, Digital Trends and Creative Bloq, among others. He was previously commissioning editor at MacFormat magazine. That means he mostly covers the world of Apple and its latest products, but also Windows, computer peripherals, mobile apps, and much more beyond. When not writing, you can find him hiking the English countryside and gaming on his PC.