West Virginia lawmakers ask Flock representative to testify at November meeting

Still unsatisfied with written answers to their questions of Flock Safety, West Virginia lawmakers have requested to hear from the company in person again during an upcoming meeting.  

In a letter dated Monday, members of the House of Delegates Committee on Government Organization asked that a representative of the company — which manufactures artificial intelligence-driven surveillance technology — appear before the committee at 2 p.m. Monday, Nov. 9 during legislative interim meetings. 

Delegates are considering legislation that would put guardrails on Flock Safety, as more and more municipalities in the state consider or contract with the company to purchase and use its surveillance systems, including automatic license plate readers and audio detection equipment. The American Civil Liberties Union says the technology is “tracking, logging and sharing your movements without a warrant.” 

Flock Safety has been the subject of privacy and constitutional concerns nationally. The Institute for Justice has reportedly identified more than 100 incidents of Flock abuse, including law enforcement stalking romantic partners, wrongfully pulling people over and other misconduct. 

Kevin Kane, the director of Government Affairs for Flock, gave a presentation to the Joint Standing Committee on Government Organization during August legislative interim meetings. Overall, some lawmakers on the committee were unimpressed with the few answers they received from Kane.

Delegates had given the company until last Friday to sufficiently answer a series of 19 questions on topics ranging from security incidents and unauthorized access to data governance and infrastructure. 

State lawmakers and the company had gone back and forth in letters over the questions after Kane’s presentation. 

In a 10-page response from Flock Safety on Sept. 1, Dan Haley, chief legal officer for Flock, wrote a broad response to each of the five categories of questions, but did not include specific answers to many of the questions lawmakers posed. Lawmakers said many of the company’s answers were not sufficient. 

State lawmakers also took issue with what they said was the company requesting to meet off the record away from public view.

In a letter to lawmakers Friday, Haley wrote that the company did not intend to request a meeting “behind closed doors.” 

“To be explicitly clear: we are proud of our record in West Virginia,” Haley wrote in the letter. “We are proud of our products, our safeguards and our ongoing efforts to continuously improve on each of those fronts. We extended offers to meet, in any setting, with members of the legislature to answer questions, provide a demonstration, and discuss in depth how Flock protects customer data in an effort to further dialogue and understanding. That offer stands. We are committed to continuing to voluntarily answer these questions and are available to meet at your convenience.”

Lawmakers have given the company until Monday, Oct. 19 to confirm they will attend the Nov. 9 meeting and provide the name of the witness expected to testify.