Flock CEO Garrett Langley said the company’s microphones detect “only gunshots,” while Flock’s website also lists fireworks, serious crashes and disruptive vehicles.
The company says its detection library expands with customer needs.
For developers working on audio classification, the gap highlights why product descriptions should accurately reflect the sounds a system can identify—and how that list may change.
Flock says the system is not designed to analyze speech.
What do audio systems record?
According to the company's official website, its equipment detects not only gunshots, but also fireworks, serious traffic accidents, as well as cars causing a disturbance. The company clarifies that the list of sounds the system can recognize is constantly expanding, depending on the requests of its customers.
As for privacy concerns, Flock said its systems are not designed to monitor conversations or analyze human speech. Last year, the company announced a feature to detect “screams,” but after a backlash, it renamed the feature to “human distress sounds” and eventually announced it was removing it from customers who were testing it.
The reactions and consequences
Concerns about the use of this technology have caused significant repercussions for Flock:
- Restrictions by authorities: US states, such as Texas and Florida, have initiated procedures to terminate their cooperation with the company.
- Termination of collaborations: Amazon Ring has ended its partnership with Flock.
- Citizen reactions: There are reports of citizens destroying the company's cameras in their neighborhoods, expressing their opposition to mass surveillance.
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