Overview
- In late August Pflugerville disclosed audit logs showing hundreds of outside agencies had searched its Flock data, prompting the city council to cancel its contract and the local school district to follow.
- Texas Governor Greg Abbott directed state agencies to stop funding Flock cameras, a move that threatens at least millions in grants and leaves hundreds of cameras’ future use uncertain.
- Senator Josh Hawley has opened a formal inquiry into Flock’s data practices and AI tools, seeking answers from CEO Garrett Langley about retention, sharing and safeguards.
- Flock announced policy changes including reducing default data retention from 30 days to seven days for new customers, requiring searchable audit tools and adding a case‑number requirement for non‑emergency searches, but officials and civil‑liberties groups say those changes do not resolve legal or enforcement gaps.
- Public backlash has grown into protests, viral calls to target cameras and acts of vandalism with arrests such as an 18‑year‑old in Temecula, while trackers report hundreds of local cancellations that could shrink the company’s national searchable network and alter how police investigate cases.