West Virginia state lawmakers are pressing Flock Safety, the nation’s largest maker of automated license plate readers, after accusing the company of a 'history of providing inaccurate information' to state and local governments.
Three Republican delegates said a Flock blog post contradicted testimony from Kevin Kane, the company’s director of government affairs, on two-step verification. During an Aug. 9 hearing, Kane said the system had used two-factor authentication 'for a long time' and later said it had become mandatory within the last year. A Flock blog post said the company 'made multi-factor authentication (MFA) mandatory' at the beginning of the month.
Flock Chief Legal Officer Dan Haley said the company 'always endeavors to give full, complete, and truthful answers.' He also said there is a 'meaningful difference' between a security control being available, standard practice and mandatory.
The dispute comes as two-factor authentication has become a major legislative flashpoint because it is seen as a defense against unauthorized access to data and police abuse of the mass-surveillance network. The matter has drawn bipartisan concern.
Lawmakers also cited other examples. They said a Flock representative told Oshkosh, Wisconsin, that license plate readers did not create heat maps to track vehicles, but local law enforcement later suggested otherwise. They also pointed to Kane’s March testimony in Connecticut that Flock had never received a data-sharing request from a federal agency, alongside a company blog post saying it had run limited pilots with U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Homeland Security Investigations.
A Flock spokesperson said the company has addressed the questions raised by West Virginia lawmakers and is willing to meet again.
Why it matters: Flock sits at the intersection of public safety and taxpayer-funded surveillance. If lawmakers think the company’s answers are shifting, trust gets expensive fast.
The bottom line: For cities and states buying this technology, the fight is not just about cameras. It is about transparency, accountability and who controls the data.