Tempe mayor on move to cancel Flock cameras: ‘Potential for misuse was too great’

Corey Woods (D), the mayor of Tempe, Ariz., on Thursday defended his decision to cancel the city police department’s $80,000 contract with Flock Safety, a top automated license plate reader company, amid reported misuse of its products.

“The concern that we had was just that the potential for misuse was too great,” he told NewsNation’s Blake Burman.

“In order to make sure that we’re not only just being directly upfront with our residents, our main goal was to provide public safety, but also make sure that we’re protecting public trust,” Woods continued. “And we understood that the longer this kept going on, we were going to see an erosion in public trust from the people who live, work and play in the city of Tempe.”

While Woods noted the city had not discovered any instances of Tempe law enforcement officers misusing Flock camera data, the mayor pointed to concerning reports from police departments across the country.

Earlier this month, The Washington Post uncovered 50 instances in which police officers were accused of abusing Flock’s network of roadside cameras to spy on people. One officer in Georgia searched his ex-girlfriend’s plates in Flock’s system more than 500 times.

Woods said his decision to turn off these roadside cameras, which went into effect Wednesday morning, was supported by an “overwhelming majority” of Tempe residents.

“But I did get a smattering of other folks who reached out and said, ‘Hey, I think these were good tools for law enforcement, and I wish you could have just come up with some safeguards to have protected residents’ privacy as opposed to doing away with the entire system,’” he added.

The company has added several privacy guardrails in the wake of growing backlash, including reducing the default video retention period from 30 days to seven days, adding more detection measures for suspicious searches and providing greater transparency about their products.

A Flock spokesperson told The Hill in a statement Friday that the company respects the city’s decision to cancel the contracts.

“Flock has built the most accountable tool in police technology, and our technology gives communities control over how their systems are used, including the ability to adopt shorter data retention periods, strong access and auditing policies, and safeguards specifically designed to catch potential misuse,” the spokesperson said. “We believe Tempe could have preserved the system’s value in helping solve serious crimes while still respecting privacy, and taking that tool away does not make a community safer.”

The reported misuse of Flock’s sprawling roadside network has prompted calls for company accountability from Capitol Hill lawmakers.

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), who chairs the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism, launched an investigation this week into accusations that the company “assembled an unprecedented national surveillance network” of more than 120,000 cameras across 49 states.

The senator demanded that Flock CEO Garrett Langley explain the safeguards the company uses to protect citizens’ data.

“Congress never authorized the network your industry has built,” Hawley wrote in his letter to Langley on Wednesday. “Your company’s internal policies are, in practice, the only safeguards for hundreds of millions of Americans. People across the country are now discovering that fact and demanding answers from their elected officials.”