{"id":922744,"date":"2026-10-10T06:36:15","date_gmt":"2026-10-10T06:36:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/922744\/"},"modified":"2026-10-10T06:36:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-10T06:36:15","slug":"ai-surveillance-startup-flock-to-cut-several-hundred-jobs-amid-backlash-sources-say-surveillance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/922744\/","title":{"rendered":"AI surveillance startup Flock to cut several hundred jobs amid backlash, sources say | Surveillance"},"content":{"rendered":"

Flock Safety plans to shed about 18% of its employees, people with direct \u2060knowledge of the plans said on Thursday, as the maker of AI<\/a>-powered surveillance<\/a> cameras and license-plate readers faces mounting opposition<\/a> to its products from communities and \u2060lawmakers.<\/p>\n

The people said the job \u2060cuts came after \u200ba voluntary buyout program and were expected to affect roughly 270 employees at Flock, a surveillance technology startup that has seen rapid growth in recent \u2060years. Employees will leave the company at the end of the month.<\/p>\n

Sources declined to be identified as the company has yet to make the plan public.<\/p>\n

Flock declined \u2060to comment.<\/p>\n

In September, Flock announced a voluntary separation program, asking employees to apply if they wanted to \u200bleave the company, as Wired reported. The \u200ccompany has about 1,500 employees.<\/p>\n

Flock faces \u200cgrowing scrutiny<\/a> from regulators, lawmakers and privacy advocates, despite drawing strong investor interest among venture capitalists. A \u200crecent Reuters\/Ipsos poll showed Americans are divided on whether Flock cameras are a good idea. About 38% of the country supports the use of Flock cameras in their community, compared with 47% who oppose their use.<\/p>\n

Across 49 states, Flock\u2019s network of about 120,000 AI-powered cameras, affixed to streets and highways, automatically read license plates and record vehicles as they pass.<\/p>\n

The company, based in Atlanta and founded in \u200c2017, has raised more than $950m from venture capital investors, with its latest $275m round in March led by Andreessen Horowitz valuing the company at $7.5bn. The funds have supported a \u200bnew US manufacturing facility and an upcoming push into drone products, according to the company.<\/p>\n

Flock provides cameras and software to more than 4,800 law enforcement agencies and nearly 1,000 businesses. The company says its technology helps investigate and solve crimes, but it has come under increasing scrutiny over alleged privacy violations and data-sharing practices.<\/p>\n

Public backlash \u2060has grown. In September, Florida banned automated license plate readers from state highways, \u200bciting privacy risks tied to Flock\u2019s \u200bcameras.<\/p>\n

Home Depot investors recently demanded reviews \u200bof the retailer\u2019s partnerships with surveillance technology vendors after reports that Flock\u2019s data was used \u200bin immigration enforcement.<\/p>\n

Flock also \u200cfaces legal challenges, such \u200bas a privacy \u200blawsuit in Virginia alleging that the widespread deployment of its AI-powered cameras constitutes warrantless surveillance.<\/p>\n

Together with AI datacenters, Flock cameras have emerged as a flashpoint ahead of November\u2019s midterm elections, with candidates increasingly attacking their opponents by tying them to the technology.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Flock Safety plans to shed about 18% of its employees, people with direct \u2060knowledge of the plans said…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":922745,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[256,254,255,64,63,105],"class_list":["post-922744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/922744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=922744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/922744\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/922745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=922744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=922744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=922744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}