FLOCK Camera System
The Perry Police Department uses the Flock Safety Camera System to help deter crime, assist investigations, and enhance public safety. The system captures vehicle information and alerts law enforcement to stolen vehicles, wanted persons, missing individuals, and vehicles connected to criminal activity.
Flock cameras do not issue traffic tickets or citations. Data is stored for 30 days, used only for legitimate law enforcement purposes, and is automatically deleted after the retention period.
Can other law enforcement agencies or organizations access our Flock cameras or data without our knowledge?
No. Other law enforcement agencies or organizations cannot access our Flock cameras or data without our knowledge. By default, our agency is defaulted to only be discoverable for sharing at the 50-mile and Statewide radius and no one outside our organization can see our cameras or data unless we accept a sharing request from them. This discoverability only means we can receive requests from them and then choose how to respond.
Access is only possible if either of the following things are true:
- We choose to allow auto-approvals for local and state agencies for certain access.
- We explicitly review and approve a specific sharing request from another agency or organization.
We decide if, when, and with whom we share. We can turn sharing off at any time or revoke sharing with any agency or organization we previously approved.
Can federal agencies see our Flock data by default?
No. Federal agencies and other outside organizations cannot see our data by default. Our agency is unable to receive Sharing Requests from federal agencies unless we choose to allow it. We control if, when, and with whom we share, and we can turn sharing off or revoke it at any time.
How does a new federal sharing relationship get created, and does this change existing agreements?
Because of the extra sensitivity around federal sharing, there are extra controls. To start any new federal sharing relationship, three things must happen:
- We turn on the ability for a federal agency to send us a sharing request (off by default).
- They request access.
- We approve the request.
If we don’t approve it, they don’t get access. These defaults do not change or cancel any existing federal MOUs or agreements we have already put in place; they mainly govern new relationships going forward.
Is there a “backdoor,” or can Flock quietly change the logs?
No. There is no backdoor access for any agency. Audit logs are designed to be complete, transparent, and reviewable. Entries are written automatically, retained for oversight, and cannot be quietly edited or overwritten; changes to sharing or settings appear as separate events, not hidden modifications.
What do our Flock audit logs capture, and are searches justified?
Our audit tools capture who searched, when, what they searched, which agency they’re from, and the associated offense type, creating a record we can review and, if needed, share with appropriate oversight bodies. Searches are tied to a standardized NIBRS-based offense type, so there is a clear public-safety justification documented for every search. In Network Audits, certain sensitive fields from outside agencies (such as officer names, specific plates, case numbers, and some search filters) are masked for safety, while full details for our own users remain visible in our Organization Audit logs.
Has Flock been “breached,” and why do I keep hearing that it has?
No. The recent concerns agencies are hearing are not the result of a successful hack or compromise of Flock’s platform or cloud environment. The “breach” narrative you may see in YouTube videos, blogs, or on social media usually collapses several different things together, like FOIA releases of audit logs, historical sharing/configuration issues, how Network Audits appear when exported, and policy debates about federal access, and then labels all of that as a “breach,” even though it is not a successful cyberattack. In at least one widely circulated video, a camera was illegally removed from service and taken off the network before it was probed, which is very different from an attacker breaking into an active, in-service device. When issues are identified, Flock addresses them through product changes, guardrails, and direct communication with affected agencies, not because attackers gained unauthorized access to your data.
