Garrett Langley, the CEO of Flock Safety, stated on October 14, 2026, that the company’s audio hardware is configured to detect “just gunshots” and is not designed to capture human voices. However, the company’s official marketing materials and subsequent internal clarifications indicate that its microphone systems are built to identify and report a wider array of acoustic events.
The discrepancy centers on the “Raven” audio detection system, which integrates with Flock’s network of over 120,000 cameras across 6,000 communities. While Langley characterized the technology as focused exclusively on gunfire during a public appearance, the Flock Safety website lists several other detectable categories, including fireworks, car crashes, and “sideshows”—a term for illegal street racing and stunt driving events marked by loud tire screeching.
A Flock spokesperson clarified on October 15 that while gunfire remains the primary focus of the system, it does continue to monitor for these additional categories. The system is designed to alert law enforcement to specific acoustic signatures that suggest public safety incidents or vehicular accidents. Once triggered, the devices typically capture a short audio clip and associated metadata for review by authorized personnel.
Scale and Regulatory Scrutiny
The conflict between executive messaging and technical reality follows a period of intense federal scrutiny for the Atlanta-based company. On September 23, 2026, the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism held a hearing entitled “Always Watching: Flock’s Nationwide AI Surveillance Network.” The hearing examined the rapid expansion of Flock’s license plate reader (LPR) and audio detection footprint.
The Senate hearing highlighted concerns regarding mass surveillance and the potential for “function creep,” where technology originally sold for a narrow purpose is later expanded to broader monitoring. Senator Josh Hawley and other lawmakers questioned the lack of federal oversight for private surveillance networks that share data directly with thousands of law enforcement agencies.
The Evolution of Audio Detection
Flock’s audio capabilities have undergone significant changes in 2026. In July, the company officially discontinued its “Distress Detection” pilot program. That feature was originally marketed as a tool to identify human screaming, a capability that drew significant criticism from privacy advocates who argued it could lead to the unintended recording of private conversations.
Before its removal, the feature was briefly rebranded from “screaming” to “distress” in an attempt to address concerns about the precision of the AI models used to identify the sounds. Despite the removal of human voice detection, the current Raven system remains capable of capturing audio from car crashes and street takeovers, which often occur in populated residential and commercial areas.
While the company maintains that its microphones do not record ambient conversation and only trigger upon hearing specific high-decibel sounds, the inclusion of “fireworks” and “crashes” in the product’s active feature set directly contradicts the CEO’s “just gunshots” narrative. This broader detection scope means the microphones are technically active and listening for a variety of sound patterns beyond ballistic discharges.
