Flock CEO Garrett Langley stated that the company’s gunshot detection microphones are designed to detect “just gunshots,” which directly contradicts the broader claims made on Flock’s official website regarding the range of ambient audio the system captures.
According to the company’s website, Flock's audio systems are capable of instantly pinpointing gunfire while also being able to “detect street takeovers early to stop chaos before it escalates,” and “identify severe crashes in real time so help arrives faster.” Additionally, the site notes that the technology can “expand awareness beyond gunfire with alerts for car crashes, fireworks, and sideshows.”
The company’s Gunshot Detection feature, announced last year, faced immediate scrutiny. In the initial announcement, Flock claimed the technology would listen for sounds of “screaming.” Privacy groups condemned this, leading the company to amend its website to state “sounds of human distress,” though Flock later stated they removed the ability to detect “distress” from customers who tried it.
During the interview, Langley pushed back against what he labeled misinformation about his product, arguing that critics misunderstand its functionality. His comments follow a period where public opinion has turned against Flock and similar license plate reading firms due to growing unease regarding mass surveillance, sentiments expressed by protesters gathering outside the venue where Langley spoke in San Francisco.
“Most people don’t call 911 when they hear a gunshot, and so that’s why we built the product,” Langley told TechCrunch editor-in-chief Connie Loizos on stage. “And then some of our customers said, ‘Oh, we have these in parking lots. It would be great if we could get alerted if someone was being abducted, if someone was being harmed.’”
Langley explained that the idea seemed logical, so the company prototyped it and rolled it out to a small group of customers. However, he noted that many people expressed concerns, leading him to concede that mistakes were made while emphasizing that he was listening to customer feedback.
“There’s only a couple customers that were prototyping it with us, and we said, ‘OK, great, it’s just going to do gunshots, plain and simple.’ If a gun goes off, we’ll notify, and if not, that’s all it’s going to listen to,” Langley explained.
When questioned about the discrepancy between his remarks and the marketing materials that claim the systems detect more than gunshots, he responded simply, “It’s just gunshots.”
A Flock spokesperson, Paris Lewbel, clarified that the gunshot detection technology is primarily used for gunfire but is also capable of identifying fireworks, sideshows, and potential car crashes. Lewbel added that Langley’s remarks were intended to emphasize that the Audio Detection technology is not designed to monitor conversations or analyze speech and does not currently detect human screaming or distress.
A FAQ section on the website reinforces that “in addition to gunshots, Flock Gunshot and Audio Detection can detect fireworks, sideshows, and other disruptive community events,” stating the detection library is continually expanding.
Langley noted that the number of Flock’s microphones is comparable to ShotSpotter, which reported having about 25,000 microphones as of 2024.
Langley’s comments arrive amid increasing scrutiny from privacy advocates, including the ACLU, and the general public who worry about the misuse of the technology, with some instances of destroyed surveillance cameras reported. The situation has worsened as Texas and Florida have ended their relationships with Flock, and Amazon’s Ring has severed its partnership with the company.
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