Hours after Flock Safety CEO Garrett Langley defended his company’s growing role in modern policing, the firm’s technology was thrust into the national spotlight when Providence police credited it with helping track down the suspect in the Brown University shooting.
On Thursday afternoon in New York City, Langley spoke about Flock’s evolution from license plate–reading cameras to more advanced surveillance tools, including drones designed for law enforcement use.
By evening, Providence Police Chief Oscar Perez publicly highlighted Flock’s systems as a critical tool in locating Claudio Neves Valente, the suspect accused of carrying out a shooting at Brown University and killing an MIT professor days earlier.
For Langley, the rapid turn of events reinforced his belief in the necessity of surveillance technology to address violent crime, even as concerns over privacy and civil liberties continue to intensify.
“America cannot tolerate tragedies like what we saw at Brown and MIT this past week,” Langley wrote in a post on X following the announcement. He added that Flock would continue developing technology to support law enforcement efforts nationwide.
Founded in 2017 and based in Atlanta, Flock Safety provides technology to local police departments and private organizations.
The company announced in March that it had reached a $7.5 billion valuation after securing $275 million in new funding from prominent investors, including Andreessen Horowitz and Founders Fund.
Flock’s core product consists of outdoor license plate reader cameras capable of scanning plates and identifying vehicle characteristics.
The footage is processed through an artificial intelligence system that allows police to search for specific vehicles across a network of cameras. Roughly 6,000 law enforcement agencies across the United States currently use Flock’s LPR technology.
Providence police said they used the system by entering a description of Valente’s vehicle into the database. One of Flock’s cameras had recently detected the car, helping officers narrow down his location.
During the search, Flock enabled additional AI features that were not part of the department’s existing contract, including technology that can identify a vehicle based on appearance even if its license plate has been altered.
While the technology has been praised for aiding investigations, it has also drawn criticism from privacy advocates and civil liberties groups.
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Organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation have warned that widespread use of AI-powered surveillance cameras could erode personal privacy and be vulnerable to misuse.
Those concerns have already led some cities to reconsider their relationships with Flock. In Redmond, Washington, police suspended use of the cameras after reports that data had been accessed by federal immigration authorities.
Earlier this month, Cambridge, Massachusetts, ended its contract with the company following community pushback over surveillance practices.
Langley has argued that responsibility ultimately lies with law enforcement agencies to use the technology ethically.
He noted that Flock includes audit trails that log when data is accessed, citing a recent case in Georgia where such records exposed a police chief who misused camera data to stalk individuals. The chief later resigned and was arrested.
“We have to give law enforcement tools to do their job, and we should also hold them accountable to not break the law,” Langley said.
Beyond cameras, Flock has expanded into aerial surveillance with its “drone as first responder” program.
The service allows officers to dispatch camera-equipped drones to emergency scenes before personnel arrive. The company said its drones completed 10,000 flights in the third quarter of 2025 alone.
Langley maintained that communities retain control over how drones are used, including restrictions on deployment and camera angles. He emphasized that the drones typically operate at an altitude of about 400 feet.
As Flock’s technology becomes more embedded in public safety operations, the debate over security and privacy is likely to intensify. For now, the Brown University case stands as a high-profile example of how rapidly evolving surveillance tools can shape modern policing — and the questions that come with them.
CNN Business
