Amid rising concerns over police departments’ use of Flock Safety cameras, the company’s founder said he believes the technology would have solved Nancy Guthrie’s missing-person case.
“We would have solved that case,” Garrett Langley, founder and CEO of Flock Safety, told Vanity Fair. “One hundred percent,” he added. “There’s no doubt in my mind.”
Guthrie disappeared in February after FBI investigators said she was kidnapped from her home in Pima County, Arizona. Footage from a doorbell camera showed a masked man with a gun tampering with the camera around the time of her disappearance.
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Pima County does not use Flock cameras.
Guthrie is the mother of “Today” host Savannah Guthrie.
Flock recently claimed it helped solve an estimated 10,000 missing-person cases in 2025. However, the estimate was extrapolated from a limited, self-selected sample of agencies to its entire customer base and attributed all “missing persons found” outcomes to “Flock technology helps.”
Langley’s comments to Vanity Fair come as Flock faces growing debate over its technology. Flock uses a network of cameras that can read license plates and create a database searchable by police departments.
Some homeowners associations and private businesses also have adopted the technology.
While many police departments have touted Flock’s ability to help solve crimes, critics have raised concerns that the cameras invade personal privacy. There also have been recent examples of agencies misusing Flock cameras.
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To address some of those concerns, Flock announced new privacy safeguards, including reducing its recommended data-retention period from 30 days to seven. Flock also said it will publish contractual language with agencies outlining who owns the collected data.
The company also said it is using a new offense filter, requiring audit assistance, proactive lockouts and case codes.
“You will see over the next six months a dramatic increase in officers being arrested or fired for abusing Flock, because we are forcing our customers to do it now,” Langley told Vanity Fair. “We know because we solved a million crimes last year what it looks like in Flock to solve a crime, and we know based off of reported abuse what abuse looks like.”
