Flock Safety was founded with the mission to eliminate crime — and we’ve always believed that is possible while protecting civil liberties and encouraging positive, productive relationships with local law enforcement and their communities. This mission is why we love working with city leadership who place a premium on communication and transparency, such as Chief Jeremy Bowers of Piedmont Police Department in Alameda County, California.

“Trust is built. It’s built over time, it’s built by how you demonstrate your professionalism, how you demonstrate your competencies, and we’ve been fortunate to demonstrate that and have a high level of trust and connection with our community,” said Chief Bowers. 

We’re thrilled to share that Piedmont Police and Flock Safety have together taken the next step in promoting police transparency with the launch of the first-ever public ALPR Transparency Portal.

The Transparency Portal provides a landmark approach to police transparency and accountability, serving as a hub for all information around Piedmont PD’s Automated License Plate Recognition (ALPR) cameras.

The Transparency Portal builds on the work Chief Bowers has already engaged in with regards to police transparency — reporting to citizens and public officials on a quarterly basis, publishing public documents on police policies and technology usage, and maintaining an open door policy for citizens to share feedback or air grievances. 

“We recognize that the public has a right and responsibility to understand how the officers who are sworn to protect and serve them do their jobs,” said Chief Bowers. “The opportunity to be the launching agency partner on this first-of-its-kind program underscores our deep commitment to openness, accountability, and integrity.”

This also builds on the commitment to ethical principles that Flock Safety has made in regards to our ALPR technology, including the automatic deletion of footage after 30 days, privacy-first features like the Safe List, and our promise to never sell or share customer data with third parties. 

“Flock Safety was founded four years ago based on the principle that it is possible to improve safety while protecting the critical right of citizen privacy,” said Matt Feury, Flock Safety Co-Founder and CTO. “We place privacy, transparency, and bias mitigation at the forefront of our product development, and are constantly engineering new features that encourage and align with our ethical principles. We’re excited for the Transparency Portal to serve as another tool that our law enforcement partners can use to strengthen ties with their communities.”

The Transparency Portal will soon become available to all Flock Safety law enforcement partners around the country.

The Piedmont Transparency Portal is publicly available today. 

Watch Why Chief Bowers Values Police Transparency here