Flock Security's founder and CEO Garrett Langley rejected calls to slow development of the company's license plate recognition and surveillance camera systems, telling an audience at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 that halting progress would prevent accountability for crime.
"If we want to live in a society where, if you commit a crime, you have a higher probability of being held accountable, we shouldn't pause progress," Langley said Wednesday in San Francisco.
The defense came as Flock faces mounting criticism. The company has reported cancelled contracts and layoffs following public backlash over its surveillance technology. During the panel, Langley deflected questions about these concerns by citing anecdotes from police chiefs and claims about crimes solved by Flock, rather than addressing specific safeguards.
Langley framed surveillance expansion as an inevitable trade-off. He argued that safer societies require citizens to surrender privacy protections, and compared Flock's trajectory to driverless vehicles, which he said are definitively safer than human drivers despite occasional accidents. But the analogy differs in practice. Driverless car makers pause operations after crashes to apply fixes. Flock, by contrast, appears reluctant to mandate its own internal safeguards. Langley stated the company would "minimize the number of mandated features, functions, and policies," leaving deployment decisions to city leaders instead.
When pressed on abuse prevention, Langley offered no concrete proposals. "I think there's a way to do that that doesn't disrupt the legal system, that doesn't disrupt the efficacy and flow of a police department," he said, without elaborating.
Langley also addressed customer departures by claiming misinformation drove some contract cancellations. He cited an example of a customer who ended service believing Flock cameras performed facial recognition, which they do not. However, Flock cameras do possess the ability to detect and track people. He characterized criticism as unfairly comparing Flock to perfection rather than to the past, adding that surveillance technology fills staffing gaps as police employment declines.
Langley maintained strong conviction in Flock's mission. "One day they might be a victim," he said of critics, arguing that millions benefit from the surveillance system despite acknowledged mistakes and disagreement over its deployment.