Flock Safety: The Tech Company Revolutionizing Crime Prevention in America

In the quiet suburb of Dunwoody, Georgia, police Lieutenant Tim Fecht sits in a high-tech command center, monitoring a DJI drone as it silently tracks a shoplifter at a local mall. Surrounded by walls of screens displaying real-time crime data, surveillance feeds, and AI-transcribed 911 calls, Fecht represents the new face of American policing – one powered by Flock Safety’s expansive surveillance network. Just twenty minutes away, 38-year-old Garrett Langley, Flock’s CEO and cofounder, oversees what has become one of the fastest-growing tech companies in the U.S. Since its founding in 2017, Flock has built an impressive network of over 80,000 cameras across American highways, thoroughfares, and parking lots. These aren’t ordinary cameras – they record not just license plate numbers but also vehicle makes and distinctive features like broken windows or bumper stickers. Valued at $7.5 billion in its most recent funding round, Flock estimates its technology helps solve approximately one million crimes annually. The company’s ambitions continue to expand, with plans to launch its own American-made drones in August 2024, directly challenging Chinese drone giant DJI’s market dominance.

Langley’s vision is bold and unapologetic: within a decade, he believes Flock’s surveillance technology will effectively eradicate most crime in the United States. While acknowledging that complementary social programs like youth employment initiatives and recidivism reduction efforts will play a role, Langley fundamentally believes that widespread surveillance is the key to public safety. “I’ve talked to plenty of activists who think crime is just the cost of modern society. I disagree,” he states firmly. “I think we can have a crime-free city and civil liberties… We can have it all.” Back in Dunwoody, Major Patrick Krieg enthusiastically shares success stories: an ATM theft gang operating across the East Coast caught after Flock cameras tracked their getaway vehicle; an armed man identified by a neck tattoo via drone before he could harm anyone in a busy bar district; a woman who had threatened her neighbor with a gun. For the upcoming July 4th parade, the largest in Georgia, Flock cameras will be watching for potential threats. “It just gives us the opportunity to ensure the safety of the community during huge events like that,” Krieg explains.

Flock’s business model has proven remarkably successful. With 2024 sales estimated at $300 million, up 70% from 2023’s $175 million, the company continues to prioritize growth over immediate profitability, bolstered by a recent $275 million funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz. This rapid expansion secured Flock a place on Forbes’ 2025 Cloud 100 list of top private cloud computing companies. Langley confidently asserts that transforming Flock into a $100 billion business is “very within reach,” a view shared by early investor Ilya Sukhar of Matrix, who sits on Flock’s board. Each license plate reader camera costs between $3,000 and $3,500, with additional fees for FlockOS, the operating system that makes all collected data accessible via browser or mobile app. Beyond its 5,000 law enforcement customers across 49 states, Flock serves 1,000 corporate clients including FedEx, Lowe’s, and Simon Property Group, America’s largest mall owner. Its customer base extends to housing associations, small businesses, schools, and organizations like the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta, which has installed 64 Flock cameras across different properties facing antisemitic threats.

Neither Langley nor his cofounders Matt Feury and Paige Todd had experience in police technology when they launched Flock in 2017. Previously, they had worked together on an app for upgrading to VIP status at sports and concert events. The first Flock prototype was remarkably simple: an Android phone camera in a waterproof box that photographed cars and identified license plates searchable via an app. By 2020, after overcoming significant technical challenges, Flock had developed what they initially envisioned: a weatherproof, solar-powered, always-on camera system that could accurately capture images and transmit them to Amazon cloud servers for analysis. Law enforcement agencies quickly embraced the technology, excited by the prospect of searching a nationwide network of cameras to track suspect vehicles. But not everyone shares this enthusiasm. Privacy advocates argue that Flock is creating an unprecedented mass-surveillance system that threatens civil liberties. One activist group, DeFlock, has crowdsourced a map of over 29,000 license plate reader locations, with two-thirds being Flock cameras. Its creator, Will Freeman, argues that Flock’s constant surveillance violates Fourth Amendment principles. Some opposition has turned physical, with cameras being vandalized and stolen, and company employees receiving threats – leading Langley to operate unmarked offices, manufacturing facilities, and installation vans.

Perhaps Flock’s most formidable challenge comes from police-tech giant Axon Enterprise, creator of the Taser. After an initial partnership following Axon’s minority investment in Flock in 2020, relations soured when Axon CEO Rick Smith terminated their deal in January 2024, accusing Flock of overcharging and using anti-competitive practices. By April, Axon had launched its own license plate reader cameras, securing the Atlanta Police Department – a current Flock customer – as its first client by charging 20% less and offering free first-year software to early adopters. Langley has responded aggressively, characterizing Axon as a monopolist abusing its market position and vowing to “take them out” with “a better product at a lower price.” Flock faces its own regulatory challenges, including an Illinois investigation into whether police violated laws by giving out-of-state agencies access to Flock feeds to enforce immigration or abortion laws. A Forbes investigation revealed that Flock had regularly failed to obtain proper permits for its devices, potentially violating local regulations. Some jurisdictions have pushed back – Austin, Texas declined to renew its Flock contract, while Camden County, Missouri, passed a law prohibiting police use of license plate readers, leading to a confrontation when a commissioner physically removed a camera and now faces criminal charges.

Despite these obstacles, Flock continues expanding its product line and vision. It’s adding car crash detection to its gunshot detection system, enhancing license plate camera capabilities, and developing “Nova” – a powerful tool that integrates law enforcement records with public information like property data, Social Security numbers, and credit histories, all searchable with AI. While the ACLU’s Jay Stanley describes this as “an end run around privacy laws and the Constitution,” Langley sees an opportunity to create a comprehensive urban management system that not only fights crime but improves traffic management and expedites infrastructure repairs. “We’ve got all these Flock cameras deployed from a criminal perspective,” Langley explains. “Why would we not then walk down to the public works department and say, ‘stop sending people out to look for potholes. I have all that data. Let’s build a better city together’?” His immediate focus, however, is on Flock’s American-made drones, which will arrive in customers’ hands in August 2024. During a demonstration in Riverside County, California, a browser-controlled Flock drone rises from a rooftop, its interface designed by former developers of the Overwatch video game. As it zooms in on two men playing softball hundreds of yards away, the reality of Flock’s surveillance capabilities becomes clear – these men have no idea they’re being watched from a factory 2,000 miles distant. In Langley’s vision of the future, this ubiquitous monitoring is not dystopian but utopian – a world where crime is virtually eliminated and cities operate with unprecedented efficiency.