Key facts
- Flock Safety is offering voluntary employee buyouts with a severance package.
- The company has a workforce of 1,500 employees.
- Flock Safety's license plate recognition technology has faced backlash.
- Police officers have been accused of misusing Flock technology in 46 cases.
- Florida and Texas have stopped using Flock's technology.
- 90 cities reportedly dropped Flock in August.
Embattled surveillance technology company Flock Safety has reportedly offered a "generous" severance package for voluntary employee departures, according to a report by Wired. The company expects a significant portion of its 1,500-person workforce to express interest in the buyouts, which it described internally as the "most generous" ever offered. By allowing voluntary departures, Flock can manage employee morale, which CEO Garrett Langley recently described as significantly impacted by backlash over the company's license plate recognition technology. Without these buyouts, the company would "almost certainly" need to conduct layoffs. The backlash intensified in August when The Washington Post identified 46 cases of police officers allegedly misusing the technology, leading Florida and Texas to cease using Flock's services. An anti-surveillance advocacy group also reported that 90 cities dropped Flock in August alone, a fourfold increase from the previous month.