Days after three Harris County Sheriff's Office deputies lost access to the agency's Flock Safety license plate reader network for potential misuse, the company's CEO went on camera to defend the technology's safeguards and call for tougher consequences when officers abuse it.

Flock Safety CEO Garrett Langley told WDIV in Detroit on Tuesday, Aug. 18, that the company built a pattern recognition tool called "audit assistance" that flags abnormal user behavior for administrators in real time and can lock out a user immediately. He said Flock also maintains an audit log of every action taken in the system, according to KPRC 2.

"I think one of the things that's missing from most state regulations is a severe enough punishment for police abusing their power," Langley said. "To me, it's not enough to simply be terminated from your job. If you're stalking an ex-partner, if you're looking up a criminal records of your daughter's boyfriend, that should be a criminal offense."

The interview comes as the HCSO deputy suspensions raise questions for Clear Lake-area residents. Nassau Bay operates 13 Flock cameras under HCSO's administration, as we reported Aug. 10. HCSO manages 20 Flock networks with a combined 480 cameras, many owned by municipal utility districts and neighborhood associations in unincorporated areas including communities near Clear Lake.

Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said on Aug. 14, when the suspensions were announced, that the agency has used Flock since 2022 and that the cameras have "thwarted kidnapping attempts, led to the quick apprehension of armed robbery crews, and helped recover countless stolen vehicles." He added: "Any deputy who abuses the public trust will be held fully accountable, both professionally and criminally."

In response to the suspensions, HCSO implemented Flock's new auditing tool to flag potential misuse and now requires deputies to provide a descriptive case code for all license plate searches.

The administrative review of the three deputies remains ongoing with no announced timeline. Policy violations could result in termination, and evidence of criminal wrongdoing would be referred to the Harris County District Attorney's Office, according to the sheriff's office.

Debate spreading to adjacent communities

The scrutiny over Flock cameras is not limited to HCSO. League City, which borders Friendswood and Webster, voted to place a non-binding proposition on its November ballot asking voters whether the city should continue using Flock cameras on public roadways, Houston Public Media reported. The vote signals that the privacy debate has reached communities sharing roads and neighborhoods with Clear Lake-area cities.

League City police say they have used Flock in 305 criminal investigations and recovered roughly $1 million in stolen property. Nationally, more than 50 agencies or jurisdictions have canceled, suspended or rejected Flock contracts since the beginning of 2026, according to DeFlock, a grassroots group that tracks the technology.

Langley said Flock does not use facial recognition, does not sell or own the data collected, and leaves decisions about sharing data with federal agencies, including ICE, to each local agency. He said nearly 7,000 police departments and tens of thousands of neighborhoods now use the technology.

Residents who have concerns about camera use in Nassau Bay or unincorporated Harris County can contact the Harris County Sheriff's Office non-emergency line at 713-221-6000.