22-07-2025
Surveillance tech company Flock Safety opens offices in Boston
The Boston office, opened Tuesday, is Flock's first expansion outside of its home in Atlanta. The new office will focus on sales and engineering.
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Flock's co-founder and chief people officer Paige Todd said that opening a new location in Seaport was an easy decision. The company recently hired senior sales officers from Boston, who advocated for an office in the city.
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Flock Safety co-founder and chief people officer Paige Todd
AMY JONATHAN EAKIN_
Boston, they said, offered its access to university graduates and technology partners, especially in artificial intelligence and engineering.
Flock's largest rival, the taser maker Axon, also opened an office in Boston last year.
'It's always a good sign to see a company is choosing to expand in Boston,' Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce spokesperson Casey Baines said in an interview. 'Our talent and workforce is going to benefit.'
Flock was founded in 2017 by Georgia Tech alums, Garrett Langley, and Matt Feury, and Todd, initially building surveillance cameras by hand. The company later created a platform that centralizes data collected from Flock's cameras and makes the data easy to share with other user
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Donald Maye, head of operations at the tech research company IPVM, said Flock has modeled its technology after social media platforms, which become more powerful as more users join. More than 5,000 law enforcement agencies use Flock's platform, according to the company.
'They aggressively invest in sales and marketing,' Maye said. 'They used the engine of developing relationships with police departments and using those relationships to sell other police departments.'
Flock's ALPR cameras are scattered across the state and country and are monitored by local law enforcement agencies. Those agencies can 'opt-in' to share or receive data from other agencies — including from other states — creating a 'network' of centralized license plate data.
Flock says the system automatically erases that data after 30 days, although it may keep it for further investigations.
Flock provides flexibility to how law enforcements choose to use the technology, Todd said. If an agency decides it wants data to be erased after seven days, it could change the settings to do so.
Agencies can also opt-in for a 'transparency portal,' a public webpage with general information on the agency's use of Flock devices, such as how many cameras they use and how many motor vehicles are logged in each month.
Some agencies also allow access to their audit logs, which show each time an officer looks up information in the Flock system.
Todd said Flock is aware of the controversial aspect of their products.
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'It is a daily conversation,' Todd said. 'How do we ensure privacy is protected while also giving law enforcement the tools they need to solve crime?'
The American Civil Liberties Union calls the technology's ability to track every person regardless of whether they committed
a crime unconstitutional.
Without clear state policies, law enforcement agencies can abuse the centralized system, said Kade Crockford, director of the Technology for Liberty Program at ACLU Massachusetts. Officers with access to the system can search for any license plate they desire, even without a warrant.
Officers could use the system to track women who travel out-of-state to seek abortion care, look up undocumented individuals, or even — as in one reported case — track an ex-wife, said Crockford.
'Privacy is not controversial,' said Crockford. 'I have no problems with companies doing business in Boston. I just want to make sure that lawmaking and public policy is done in the interest of residents and the public.'
Flock has recently expanded its products beyond its cameras.
It also developed gunshot sound detection sensors and in April invested in a drone system to aid in car pursuits. Todd said the company is looking to collaborate with other tech companies in Boston as it continues to grow.
In New England, only Massachusetts and Rhode Island are without laws regulating the use of license plate recognition systems. Earlier this year, state Representative Steven Owens, Democrat of Watertown, filed the Drivers Privacy Act, which would limit how long data could be stored and prevent agencies from tracking activity protected by the First Amendment.
Yogev Toby can be reached at
