Flock Safety said Thursday it will shorten default automated license plate reader retention to seven days, require all customers to enable Audit Assistance, and make officers enter case codes for searches after reports of misuse by law enforcement. The company also said emergency searches can bypass the new case-code requirement.
The mechanics are mostly about controls, not a hard limit: Evidence Mode can keep data longer when a case is active, and critics note that longer retention has been available before, sometimes as a paid option. Audit Assistance is meant to flag abnormal activity and suspend accounts for review, but it does not remove the underlying ability to search across jurisdictions.
For agencies using Flock, the practical change is a tighter front end and more review paperwork around the same surveillance network. If a department already depends on multi-agency plate searches or longer holds for investigations, the exposure still persists beyond the seven-day default.