Flock Safety Offers Buyouts to Cut Workforce Amid Backlash
Flock Safety offers voluntary buyouts to its 1,500 employees as backlash over license plate surveillance, police misuse and lost cities now intensifies.
Summary
Flock Safety offered voluntary departure packages on Friday, September 18, 2026, as it seeks to reduce its 1,500-person workforce. The company expects significant interest and plans to approve most requests, calling the packages its most generous ever, although specific payment terms remain unclear. Flock reportedly believes layoffs would almost certainly be necessary without the buyouts, which give employees demoralized by criticism of its license plate recognition technology a voluntary exit.
In August, 46 cases were identified in which police officers were accused of misusing Flock technology, including allegedly stalking wives, girlfriends or former partners. Florida and Texas said they would stop using the technology, while an anti-surveillance group counted 90 cities dropping Flock that month, four times July’s total. CEO Garrett Langley recently called damage to internal morale the backlash’s biggest consequence. The buyout approvals will determine how much Flock can shrink voluntarily and whether layoffs follow.
Positives
- Flock plans to approve buyouts for a majority of interested employees from its 1,500-person workforce.
- The voluntary packages are described by Flock as the most generous it has ever offered.
- Voluntary departures could reduce the number of compulsory layoffs that Flock reportedly considers otherwise almost certain.
- Demoralized employees will have an option to leave voluntarily with severance rather than wait for possible job cuts.
Risks & concerns
- Forty-six police misuse cases identified in August included officers allegedly stalking wives, girlfriends or former partners with Flock technology.
- Florida and Texas said they will stop using Flock’s license plate recognition technology.
- Ninety cities dropped Flock in August, four times the number recorded in July.
- CEO Garrett Langley identified internal morale as the area suffering the greatest damage from the backlash.
- Layoffs reportedly remain almost certain if voluntary buyouts do not reduce the workforce sufficiently.