Aug 18, 2026 · 55m · allin
Mass Surveillance, Police Misuse, and Who Controls Your Flock Cameras with Flock CEO, Garret Langley
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gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions
Host Jason Calacanis interviews Flock Safety CEO Garrett Langley to explore the operational capabilities, ethical boundaries, and privacy safeguards of automated license plate readers and emergency drones across American cities.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. The hosts hold 47% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
The hosts as informed peer 4.5 Guest teaching 3.7 Guest disagreement 1.0 The hosts pushing back 2.4
speaking balance: gold is the hosts, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 16:02 Garrett rejects the zero-sum privacy vs safety mindset
Garrett firmly pushes back against one-sided critics, stating that those who look exclusively at privacy or safety are both on the wrong side of the equation.
Hardest push from the hosts ▶ 13:30 Jason calls out Garrett's rhetoric and poor communicationsJason refuses Garrett's previous framing of camera vandals as terrorists, correcting him that they are privacy activists reacting to a perceived lack of nuance.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 8:36 Garrett educates on delayed crime reporting realityGarrett explains the stark realities of crime clearance, showing why a 7-day retention fails homicide welfare checks and sexual assault investigations.
The host holds their own ▶ 22:15 Jason proposes enterprise dual-authorization architectureJason leverages his tech enterprise background to outline a multi-key supervisor approval architecture to mitigate internal police data abuse.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | The hosts as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | The hosts pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Flock's Origins, Scale, and Crime Reduction Footprint | 3 | 4 | 1 | 2 | Jason opens the interview by framing Flock's balance between public safety and privacy concerns. Garrett explains the company's background, core technology footprint, and statistics regarding crime reduction and missing persons recovery. | |
| City Council Approvals and Data Retention Policies | 4 | 3 | 1 | 2 | Jason probes into how communities approve Flock cameras and how data retention policies work to prevent rogue access. Garrett outlines the city council approval process and Flock's default data retention timeline shift from 30 days to 7 days. | |
| Crime Clearance Rates vs. Privacy: 7 Days to 30 Days | 5 | 5 | 1 | 3 | Jason asks about clearance stats across retention windows and describes his personal security setup. Garrett explains that 90% of crimes are cleared in the first 7 days, but complex cases like delayed reported assaults or missing persons need longer, while clarifying that Flock does not do facial recognition or video recording like some competitors. | |
| Activism, Camera Vandalism, and Public Communications | 6 | 4 | 2 | 6 | Jason challenges Garrett on his public communications, calling out his previous comments framing camera vandals as terrorists when they are primarily privacy activists. Garrett acknowledges making communication mistakes while pointing out the felony legal consequences of damaging municipal safety cameras. | |
| Combatting Police Abuse with Automated Audit Assistance | 6 | 5 | 2 | 4 | Jason questions what mechanisms prevent police officers from abusing ALPR data for personal stalking or corruption. Garrett details the new automated audit assistant feature that identifies suspicious search patterns, citing real-world terminations of offending officers. | |
| Sponsor Message: Numeral Sales Tax Solution | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Mid-roll commercial break sponsor message for Numeral Sales Tax Solution. | |
| Churn, Misinformation, and Ethical Competition | 5 | 4 | 1 | 2 | Jason and Garrett discuss city cancellations, competitor tactics, and ethical lines in surveillance technology. Garrett clarifies that many cancellations stem from misinformation confusing Flock with facial-recognition competitors, and several cities subsequently reinstated Flock. | |
| Vehicle Identification Technology and Socioeconomic Perspectives on Safety | 6 | 4 | 1 | 2 | Jason and Garrett examine vehicle feature tagging (dents, roof racks) and delve into the socioeconomic divide regarding public safety, contrasting affluent neighborhoods with gated security against underprivileged communities that rely on municipal cameras. | |
| Community Security Choices and Personal Safety Perspectives | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | Jason articulates his parental perspective on accepting license plate tracking over 30 days while opposing facial recognition. Garrett shares an anecdote of an adversarial local politician whose perspective changed after being targeted by violence. | |
| Navigating Public Scrutiny, Morale, and Executive Accountability | 6 | 5 | 1 | 3 | Jason brings up public criticism, internal team morale, and media scrutiny like Tucker Carlson's critique, advising proactive transparency. Garrett introduces Flock's expanding drone business and explains how rooftop drones de-escalate 911 calls by rapidly assessing situations before armed police arrive. | |
| State Surveillance Regulations and Interview Conclusion | 4 | 4 | 1 | 1 | Jason and Garrett conclude by comparing state-level ALPR data retention regulations across the United States (from New Hampshire's 3-minute limit to Washington's 21 days). Jason wraps up emphasizing local community choice. |
Statements from this episode (26)
Langley: Flock solved 1M crimes and found 10K missing people last year
“And if you look at like last year, to your point, we've had a tremendous impact on the country north of a million crimes solved using Flock, north of 10,000 people found who were missing.”
Langley: Flock Safety operates in over 6,000 US cities
“And so we're in, you know, roughly six, you know, just over 6000 or so cities across the country.”
Langley: The last local government tech company IPO was over 20 years ago
“The last company to go public that serviced local government It was over 20 years ago.”
Langley: Flock attended nearly 10,000 city council meetings in the prior year
“And so I think last year we went to something close to 10,000 city council meetings as a business.”
Langley: Flock reduced default camera data retention from 30 to 7 days
“And so for the longest time, 30 days was our default. We've recently shifted that down to seven days.”
Langley: 90% of crimes are solved within seven days of data retention
“We think 90% of crimes will get solved within seven days of data retention.”
Langley: Flock avoids facial recognition and video capture unlike competitors
“We don't do facial recognition. We don't capture video. We don't look inside the car. We don't even allow in our system to search for people for our licensing cameras. And that's in direct conflict with some of our biggest competitors who do all of the things …”
Langley: Flock camera vandal in Midwest faces 15 to 20 years
“And I saw this individual who just got arrested in, I think it was either Ohio or Illinois. And Jason, he's facing like, 15 to 20 years in jail.”
Langley: Demographic and wealth disparities directly determine perceived personal safety
“Today, depending on the color of your skin and your wealth level and your race, I'm sorry, and your sex determines how safe you feel. Women feel less safe than men. That's a fact. But minorities feel less safe than you and me. That's a fact. If you live in a l…”
Langley: Nine Georgia police officers fired for abusing Flock system
“They're publicly saying, I fired nine officers today, which is the most severe offense in Georgia for abusing the system. They're out of my police department. I don't want them.”
Flock Safety makes audit assistance tool mandatory for police customers
“And so we now are requiring that as a mandatory, it's not even a default, it's a mandatory feature you have to have turned on.”
Langley: California recorded 7,000 state database abuses last year
“And you look at like California, you know, there was 7000 reported abuses of their state database last year.”
Langley: Tech providers must set strong policy defaults for police chiefs
“And that chief's relying on me to educate him on what I think is best. And so I do think the responsibility falls on us to give those strong defaults and then allow them to pivot against it. And still respect the democratic process, but focus on the defaults.”
Langley: Flock Safety will never build AI that defines suspicion
“Yeah, that I don't want to do. Like, I think we've been really consistent that we never want to be a company that defines suspicion. That's really dangerous.”
Calacanis: Cities that dropped Flock will reconsider once guardrails are clear
“I predict as you explain this and you change the defaults and the audits get in place and the dirty cops get, you know, taken out of this, that you'll see some number of those cities, you know, and the city councils readdress this when things cool down a littl…”
Langley: Close to 20 cities have turned Flock cameras back on
“We've had close to 20 cities already turned their cameras back on.”
Langley: Reckless competitors lack audit tools and it will catch up
“And our competitors to your point, yes, they run more reckless. They run without these tools, without the scrutiny. And I think it's gonna catch up to them. It will catch up to them eventually.”
Langley: Flock enables vehicle queries by visual defects like missing hubcaps
“The detectives, they would go in and say, okay, show me all the cars in this 15 minute window that did not have a back right hubcap. And that's the beginning of an investigation, not the end of an investigation.”
Calacanis: Poorest NYC communities most favored stop-and-frisk policing
“The people in the poorest communities were the most in favor of stop, ask, and frisk.”
Langley: Flock Safety supporters are typically people without other security means
“It's worth looking at who is so against what we do and who is so for it. And it's typically people who don't have any other way to protect themselves. Who need this, right? Who want this.”
Langley: Anti-Flock Illinois Official Became Advocate After Flock Solved Shooting At Her Home
“I had this interesting conversation with an elected official in Illinois who was one of our largest antagonists, very anti-flock and really sad, really scary. She was the victim of political violence. Someone shot at her house, and the police used a flat camer…”
Langley: Internal Morale Suffered the Biggest Damage From Flock's PR Crisis
“You know, I think the biggest damage is the internal morale, right?”
Langley: Flock Safety raised capital and sits at 0.1% churn
“You know, we raised more money at the beginning of the year. Companies still growing. We could be growing faster. If we used to have zero churn, now we have to your .1%.”
Langley: LPR is under 50% of Flock's revenue as drones grow fastest
“So drones is probably our fastest growing business unit right now. You know, our LPR business is just under 50% kind of our forward looking revenue.”