Flock

"Words can't describe what you feel as a parent when you see your children have a level of fear that they've never had before." At 5:00 a.m., a Pinecrest family woke to an alarm and two masked suspects were already inside their home. The parent called 911. Village of Pinecrest Police Dept searched their Flock system and identified the suspect vehicle. A sheriff's office helicopter followed it for 22 miles. Three suspects were taken into custody. "I'm living proof that my family is safer because of this technology." See the full story.

On stage at #IACPTech in Ft. Worth, TX Paris Lewbel and Taylor Merriss on transparency, community perception, and the tools shaping modern policing. 👇 👇 👇 👇

The final line of the Austin American-Statesman editorial gets something right: public safety technology should earn public trust through meaningful oversight, transparency and clear rules. That isn't even controversial. It's how Flock has operated since day 1. But the broader debate around automated license plate readers too often stops there, as if the existence of risk is itself an argument against the technology. It isn’t. America is facing levels of violence that are dramatically out of step with other affluent nations. The United States gun homicide rate is roughly 26 times higher than that of peer countries. Communities are demanding answers because they are living through carjackings, shootings, organized retail theft and violent repeat offenses at a scale most developed nations simply do not experience. So yes, technology is moving quickly. But crime is evolving quickly too. The answer to that reality cannot be paralysis. Critics frequently frame this debate as though cities must choose between civil liberties and modern investigative tools. That’s a false choice. We regulate powerful tools in every area of society - banking, medicine, aviation, transportation, pharmaceuticals, telecommunications - without banning them outright simply because safeguards are necessary. Why should public safety technology be treated differently? If there are concerns about retention periods, access controls, audit logs, data sharing or misuse, then elected leaders should do the actual hard work of governing. Write policies. Mandate transparency reports. Require audits. Set penalties for abuse. That is what responsible leadership looks like. What should concern the public is not whether communities use technology with guardrails. It’s whether political leaders are willing to build those guardrails while still giving law enforcement tools to investigate violent crime. And it’s worth asking: who is actually calling for these systems to be eliminated altogether? In many cases, it is not ordinary residents living with daily public safety concerns. It is ideological activists who oppose nearly any form of modern policing technology regardless of evidence, outcomes, or safeguards. There is a reasonable debate to be had about limits and accountability. There should be. But allowing the loudest extremes to dominate the conversation helps no one, especially the families and neighborhoods most affected by violence. Communities deserve both safety and civil liberties. Those goals are not mutually exclusive. The real challenge is not whether technology exists. It’s whether leaders have the courage and competence to regulate it responsibly instead of retreating from it entirely. https://lnkd.in/e7KhDqTc

So proud to support West Cancer Center & Research Institute. No patient should have to worry about their car while fighting cancer. After building a perimeter security strategy with Flock in Memphis, Tennessee their parking lot crime dropped 100%. See the full story: https://lnkd.in/eMWPwS5K

Last year, Austin made the decision to turn off its Flock camera network following a public pressure campaign built on misinformation about how the technology works. This weekend showed what that tradeoff can look like. For nearly 24 hours, three suspects moved through Austin in stolen vehicles, carrying out a shooting spree across 12 separate locations. People were shot. Homes, apartment buildings, businesses, and fire stations were hit. Robberies and additional car thefts piled up as the suspects kept moving. The response was massive. 200 officers, helicopter support, K9 units, a full manhunt. Even with all of that, the suspects stayed ahead of law enforcement. Then they crossed into Manor, Texas. Manor is a city of roughly 20,000 residents with a fraction of Austin's resources. What Manor has is an active license plate recognition network and the community support to keep it running. Manor PD located the suspects almost immediately. The spree ended. Residents stayed safe. We're grateful for the officers in both cities who worked to bring this to a close, and we're glad it's over. Austin is a great city full of people who deserve to feel safe in their neighborhoods. Our hope is that stories like Manor's can help inform the conversation about what these tools actually do, and what communities lose when they're taken away.

#PollOfTheWeek - Take a second to answer OR comment below! You might inspire someone to find a new way to stay safe.

City councils are asking more direct questions about public safety technology. Who’s using it, why it’s being used, and whether it aligns with policy. We’re hosting a live webinar on how agencies are answering these questions in practice. Join us on May 20th for How to Speak to City Councils: Meeting the Moment with Confidence Hear what teams are saying, what’s resonating, and how they’re preparing before the meeting. Plus, takeaways you can use right away: a chief-to-council guide, objection-handling playbook, and updated comms toolkit. Register: https://bit.ly/4fppJz6

"We can see what's happening before we get there." The University of St. Thomas is rethinking campus safety with drone as first responder technology, giving public safety officers situational awareness the moment a call comes in. Flock helped power it. Read more: https://bit.ly/42CVeyk