Flock Safety Launches Public Transparency Portal Amid Growing Scrutiny

Flock Safety launched a public-facing transparency portal in February 2026, providing residents with access to aggregate statistics about how participating law enforcement agencies use its automated license plate reader platform.

The portal, available at transparency.flocksafety.com, allows users to search by agency and view data including the number of plate detections recorded, the number of database queries conducted, and the categories of investigations the technology was used for. Individual plate reads are not disclosed, and agencies must opt into the portal's public disclosure program.

The launch came amid a surge of lawsuits, legislative pressure, and contract terminations in California and other states. At the time of launch, roughly 300 of Flock Safety's 5,000-plus agency customers had opted into the portal.

"We believe transparency builds trust, and trust is the foundation of public safety technology," said Flock Safety CEO Garrett Langley in a press release accompanying the launch. "We're committed to showing communities how this technology is being used on their behalf."

Privacy advocates offered a mixed reaction. The EFF acknowledged the portal as a "modest step forward" but argued it fell far short of meaningful accountability. Key criticisms included the opt-in structure (allowing agencies with poor practices to simply not participate), the absence of individual query-level data, and the lack of information about cross-agency data sharing.

"A transparency portal that only 6% of agencies participate in, and that only shows aggregate numbers, doesn't tell residents whether their plate was queried, by whom, and for what reason," said EFF Staff Attorney Hannah Zhao. "That's the information that actually matters."

Legislators in California, Massachusetts, and Washington state have introduced bills that would mandate more comprehensive disclosure requirements regardless of vendor-offered transparency programs. Several bills would require individual query notifications to residents who are searched under certain circumstances.

FlockWatch will be monitoring portal data from participating agencies and publishing findings as part of our ongoing coverage.