Flock “can’t tech its way out” of the stalker cop problem, experts say

Additionally concerning—although Langley predicted to The Verge that “you are going to see more officers fired and more officers arrested for abusing police power”—experts warn that the public will only know the tool is working if agencies are fully transparent about how much abuse is found. “Unless we know the number of officers misusing the system, we cannot conclude if Flock and its auditing tools are catching 95 percent of violators or 5 percent,” the ACLU said in a post analyzing Flock’s changes. Former San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin told SFGate that Flock’s changes “may not be enough.” “The reforms may catch an officer misusing the tech, but the decision to discipline them falls on local agencies and ultimately falls on whether the agencies are really motivated to take corrective action,” SFGate reported. Historically, police misconduct is often handled quietly internally, and Boudin pointed out that this makes it easy for cops to conceal bad Flock behavior. He also noted that pursuing criminal charges for misusing internal police tech is already difficult in states without specific statutes outlawing the abuses. “It’s very difficult for anybody outside the department to know about it, and very easy for the department to sweep it under the rug,” Boudin said. “Even with the best intentions from Flock, it’s just not enough to ensure accountability. Most likely, it seems the public will find out about abuses through evidence shared in lawsuits or other criminal investigations, since agencies may not be willing to voluntarily disclose cases that could draw unwanted negative attention. “You can have all the technology in the world to oversee and monitor police behavior, but that technology and that evidence is not enough if there’s no political will to actually have consequences for people who break the rules,” Boudin said. “That’s the bigger challenge with police accountability.”