Garrett Langley

Founder and CEO of Flock Safety, a public safety technology company.

112

Claims

As speaker

Mentioned in

Key positions and views

Advanced technology like AI, drones, and license plate readers is the most effective solution to augment understaffed police departments and improve public safety outcomes.

Private funding from corporations and foundations is a necessary and beneficial driver of technological innovation within historically slow-moving public law enforcement agencies.

Criticism of surveillance technology is often misplaced; the root issue is a pre-existing lack of trust between communities and police, not the technology itself.

To maintain public trust, surveillance systems must be transparent, with features like permanent, publicly-available audit logs for every search, and data should be controlled by local agencies, not a central authority.

AI should be used to automate the intermediate processes of an investigation, but a human officer must always initiate and conclude the process to ensure proper oversight and accountability.

Podcast consensus on Langley

Points of consensus

▶Across multiple appearances, Langley consistently claims Flock Safety's technology was involved in solving or clearing approximately one million crimes in the United States in the last year, positioning it as a tool with massive national impact.May 2026

▶Langley repeatedly states that Flock Safety has a corporate policy of not working directly with the US federal government, while also clarifying that federal agencies like ICE can and do request data from the company's local law enforcement partners.May 2026

▶The rapid growth of Flock Safety is a consistent point, with Langley citing its expansion to over 5,000-6,000 cities, its network covering over 50% of the US population, and achieving approximately $500 million in Annual Recurring Revenue within seven years.May 2026

▶Langley frequently discusses the complex and varied landscape of state-level data retention laws, citing specific legislative differences in states like California, Virginia, New Jersey, and Georgia that dictate how long law enforcement partners must store data.May 2026

Points of debate

▶There is a tension between Langley's emphasis on privacy through 'objective' vehicle tracking and his promotion of powerful features like 'Freeform' natural language search, which allows police to find individuals based on descriptions of their clothing.May 2026

▶Langley's narrative presents a conflict between federal and state authority, particularly regarding drones. He notes that FAA regulations prohibit local police from disabling unauthorized drones, while states like Georgia and Louisiana are simultaneously passing laws to permit such actions.May 2026

▶A contradiction exists between Flock Safety's standard 30-day data retention policy and the legal requirements imposed by some states. For example, he notes New Jersey mandates a five-year retention period, overriding the company's default practice.May 2026

▶Langley champions local control over data and highlights state laws preventing data sharing with federal agencies, yet he also acknowledges that federal agencies can access this data through requests to local police departments, creating a functional loophole to the stated policy.May 2026

Key themes

▶Technology as a Law Enforcement Force Multiplier

Langley consistently frames Flock Safety's technology—including LPRs, drones, and AI—as an essential solution to the widespread problem of police understaffing. He argues that these tools augment officer capabilities, improve response times, and increase crime clearance rates, effectively allowing departments to do more with fewer personnel.

This positions Flock's value proposition as a solution to a public sector operational crisis (staffing shortages), making it a potentially resilient business model that is less dependent on expanding police budgets and more on improving efficiency.

▶Public Safety as a Public-Private Endeavor

A recurring theme is the critical role of private funding and corporate partnerships in advancing public safety technology. Langley highlights that all recent tech innovations in the SFPD were privately funded and points to companies like Lowe's and Blackstone as key customers and supporters of law enforcement.

The increasing reliance on private capital for core public safety functions suggests a significant market opportunity, but also raises long-term questions for analysts about equity in technology deployment and the influence of corporate interests on policing priorities.

▶Navigating a Patchwork of Regulation and LegalityMay 2026

Langley's discourse is deeply engaged with the complex web of state and federal laws governing surveillance technology. He frequently cites specific statutes regarding data retention periods, cross-state data sharing prohibitions, and the jurisdictional conflict between the FAA and local police over drone airspace.

Langley's detailed command of these regulations indicates that legal and policy navigation is a core competency for Flock Safety, suggesting that the company's ability to adapt to a fragmented regulatory environment is a key competitive advantage and a significant risk factor.

▶The Ethics and Optics of AI-Powered Surveillance

Langley actively works to shape the narrative around surveillance, arguing that privacy concerns are often proxies for a lack of trust in police. He emphasizes his technology's objectivity by focusing on vehicles rather than people and highlights transparency features like permanent, public audit logs for every search.

The company's long-term success is heavily dependent on winning the public relations battle over surveillance. Investors and analysts should view Flock's policy engagement, transparency initiatives, and public statements as critical functions for mitigating reputational and regulatory risk.

Source episodes

Sentiment over time

Not enough data for timeline

Changes over time

2017

Garrett Langley founds Flock Safety [60].

Post-2017

The company experiences its initial growth phase, primarily driven by local news coverage of crimes solved with its technology. California is cited as an early and easy market to enter [96, 54].

2021-2023

Langley notes a period of legislative shifts, as states like Florida and Maryland lift legal prohibitions that had previously prevented law enforcement agencies from using cloud-based data hosting services [18, 30, 67, 78].

Recent Year

Langley consistently reports a period of massive scale and impact, claiming the technology was involved in approximately one million crimes/arrests, helped return over 450 missing children, and cleared over 1,000 Amber/Silver Alerts. The company reports reaching ~$500 million in ARR [5, 19, 64, 82].

Present

Langley's discourse focuses on the deployment of advanced AI, such as LLMs that listen to 911 calls in real-time in cities like San Francisco, and the expansion of drone programs that significantly reduce police response times [37, 81, 90].

Suggested prompts

How does Garrett Langley reconcile his company's stated policy of not working with the federal government with the operational reality that federal agencies can access Flock data via local partners? &nearr;What are the potential societal consequences and equity implications of relying on privately funded technology to equip public law enforcement agencies, as described by Langley? &nearr;Analyze the tension between Flock's stated goal of 'objective' vehicle tracking and the capabilities of its 'Freeform' natural language search for identifying individuals by their physical appearance. &nearr;Given the conflicting state and federal regulations on data sharing and drone usage that Langley outlines, what are the primary legal and operational risks for Flock Safety's business model? &nearr;

Key concepts

Drone Technology & Regulation 4 ep Data Retention Policies & State Laws 4 ep License Plate Readers (LPRs) 4 ep Crime Statistics & Clearance Rates 4 ep Flock Business Growth (ARR, Customers) 3 ep Privacy & Surveillance Ethics 3 ep AI & Large Language Models (LLMs) 2 ep Public-Private Partnerships 2 ep Federal Government Interaction 2 ep Police Staffing Shortages 2 ep

Notable quotes

“Yeah, we'll do about a million arrests this year.”

Garrett Langley · “How We Can Eliminate Crime” | Ben Horowitz and Garrett Langley

“So anytime you're calling 911 in San Francisco, we have an LLN that's listening to the phone call.”

Garrett Langley · AI for Public Good with OpenGov & Flock Safety

“Flock Safety has a corporate policy of not working directly with the US federal government.”

Garrett Langley · Flock Safety Founder and CEO Garrett Langley at Semafor World Economy

“legally, even to today, law enforcement not allowed to engage that drone they can't take it down that's faa airspace it's not law enforcement airspace”

Garrett Langley · Garrett Langley of Flock Safety on building technology to solve crime

Report last updated: May 10, 2026

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