Garrett Langley of Flock Safety on building technology to solve crime

Local news drove first $40M in revenue

Flock acquired its first $20-40 million in annual recurring revenue solely through appearances on local 5 o'clock news segments covering solved crimes, with zero traditional marketing spend.

Origin in Atlanta firearm theft

Langley built the first camera in 2017 after Atlanta Police declined to investigate a neighborhood car break-in involving a stolen firearm, creating a solar-powered license plate reader to identify non-resident vehicles.

$500M ARR across 6,000 cities

The company reached approximately $500 million in ARR within seven years by expanding from neighborhood associations to over 6,000 cities covering more than 50% of the U.S. population.

AI-powered 911 call integration

Flock taps into 911 calls in real-time, allowing operators to immediately query camera networks using natural language searches like 'white converse sneakers' to identify suspects within minutes rather than weeks.

Solar-powered edge computing

Cameras operate on solar power with 5G backhaul, enabling deployment at intersections without fiber or electrical connections while capturing clear images of vehicles traveling 100 mph.

Autonomous drone deployment

Police drones automatically fly to crime scenes at 400 feet to track suspects using visual descriptions, enabling safe tactical apprehensions without high-speed chases.

The 17,000 department problem

Unlike centralized national police forces in Ireland or Australia, the U.S. has 17,000 local agencies that historically could not share data, requiring phone calls and faxed files for coordination.

Recent cloud legalization

Many states only legalized cloud storage for law enforcement recently (Florida in 2022, Maryland in 2023), previously preventing real-time data sharing between agencies.

FBI database latency gap

While Flock maintains real-time local stolen vehicle hot lists, the FBI's NCIC database operates on 24-hour CSV file transfers via FTP servers, creating dangerous delays for tracking stolen cars across state lines.

One million crimes cleared annually

Flock technology contributed to the clearance or arrest in over one million crimes last year, ranging from petty theft to multi-state human trafficking operations involving 76 arrests across four states.

1,000+ Amber and Silver Alerts cleared

The system helped clear over 1,000 missing children and senior alerts in the past year through integration with FBI warrant lists and local hot lists.

17-minute arrest versus cold case

In one recent attempted homicide case, Flock's system moved from 911 call to arrest in 17 minutes by identifying the suspect via clothing description, compared to traditional investigations that would have taken weeks or become cold cases.