2020
Langley says Garry Tan led Flock's Series B round, which Langley describes as the only Series B Tan had done.
“So luckily, Gary Tan shared my beliefs of like, safety should be a public right. It shouldn't be a privilege.”
Topic
Flock Safety
25 facts from 3 episodes, in date order. These are what speakers said on the shows, each linked to the moment it was said. They aren't independently verified.
2025
Langley says Flock Safety helped clear just over a million crimes in the United States in the prior year.
“So last year we helped clear just north of a million crimes in America.”
2025
Langley says Flock lost a large Mexican government deal to Hikvision, a Chinese camera maker, whose price was about a tenth of Flock's.
“And it was us versus Hickvision. Hickvision is a Chinese camera manufacturer, arguably a subsidiary of the CCP. And we were almost 10 times the price.”
2025
Langley says Flock pulled 77 construction permits a day in the prior year, and he suspects it is among the largest general contractors in the US.
“We pulled 77 permits a day last year.”
2025
Langley says Virginia's law set a 21-day data retention period, required audits and limited use to criminal investigations, but barred cooperation with the federal government, which he disagrees with.
“It defined, it did a few things well. And one thing I don't agree with. What it did well is it defined a modest data retention period of 21 days.”
2025
Langley says the capital Flock's Thriving Cities Fund invested in local businesses earned about a 21% internal rate of return in the prior year.
“You know, last year, I think we were at, you know, 21 % IRR. So like, it's not a bad business.”
2026
Langley says the price of a solid-state memory part used in Flock's cameras rose fourfold in a short period, which he attributes to a much larger company placing a massive order.
“And like, we had this one part, those are our cameras, and the price had gone up 4x in near time”
2026
Langley says Flock's core business is profitable and will generate hundreds of millions of dollars in operating cash flow in the current year.
“the core business now is profitable, which is great. Like we'll generate free cash flow, hundreds of millions of dollars of operating cash flow this year.”
Undated
Flock Safety is a Y Combinator company built in Atlanta by second-time founder Garrett Langley.
“there's a company called flock safety that was a YC company built in Atlanta by second-time founders Garrett Langley extraordinary founder”
Undated
Flock Safety first sold its license plate cameras to homeowners associations and neighborhoods, tracking cars rather than people.
“started selling them to homeowners associations so selling them to neighborhoods saying put up this camera we'll be able to track cars not people which was very important to him”
Undated
Katherine Boyle says police chiefs began contacting Flock Safety inbound, and the company now operates in 30 states.
“police chiefs across the country just started contacting them inbound can you give us some of these cameras and so now they're in 30 states they've grown tremendously”
Undated
Garrett Langley says Flock Safety's growth up to roughly $20-40 million in annual recurring revenue came mainly from local 5 o'clock news coverage of crimes it helped solve.
“we might be the only company that for the first let's call it 20 or 30, 40 million of ARR, strictly driven off of 5 o 'clock news.”
Undated
Langley says Flock operates in just over 6,000 US cities, covering well over half of the US population.
“it's just over 6 ,000 cities. So it's well north of 50 % of America. That's covered by Flock.”
Undated
Langley says Flock Safety grew from zero to about $500 million in annual recurring revenue in seven years by selling cameras and drones to governments.
“the business has gone from zero to about 500 million in ARR in the last seven years, building cameras, drones, and selling them to the government”
Undated
Langley says a human trafficking bust coordinated on Flock led to 76 arrests across four states.
“we did a huge uh human trafficking bust it's 70 some 76 people arrested across four states like all organized on flock”
Undated
Langley says the FBI's NCIC list holds about a quarter to half a million vehicles tied to warrants and alerts, and Flock integrates directly with it.
“the FBI maintains a list called the NCIC, which is about quarter to half a million known vehicles with other warrants.”
Undated
Langley says a stolen car appears on the Bay Area Flock hot list at once but takes about 24 hours to reach the FBI's list, which is distributed as a CSV file over FTP servers.
“They will immediately put it in the Bay Area Flock hot list immediately. It will take 24 hours to make it to the FBI hot list. And that's a CSV file that gets sent around on FTP servers across the US.”
Undated
Langley says one early engineering challenge for Flock was building a camera that reads license plates and tracks cars on solar power with a 5G data link.
“Read a license plate, track a car on solar power with a 5G backhaul.”
Undated
Langley says Flock's Safe City program tends to cost about $20 per citizen per year.
“It tends to be about $20 a citizen a year. It's your choice.”
Undated
Langley says Flock's corporate business has more than $100 million in annual recurring revenue and is probably its fastest growing segment.
“um north of 100 million of ar oh okay so like it's real probably fastest growing segment”
Undated
Langley says that in a Tennessee town, police average a 7.5-minute response to 911 calls while a Flock drone arrives in 68 seconds.
“Their average response time to 911 calls is seven and a half minutes. Their drone from us gets there in 68 seconds.”
Undated
Langley says an average Flock drone can cover a 30-square-mile radius and reach a scene in under a minute.
“No, I mean, our average drone can cover a 30 square mile radius and get there within under a minute.”
Undated
Langley says the infrared cut filter is the one moving part in Flock's cameras, switching twice a day between day and night modes.
“there's one part, which is the IR cut filter. So when we operate at night, we operate on infrared and you need a different filter so that you don't have pink images during the day.”
Undated
Langley cites a Baltimore case in which an aircraft with a powerful camera flying around the clock was deemed an unwarranted search as a reason Flock's drones are dispatched only for specific incidents.
“Yeah, but, like, you look at the Carpenter case in Baltimore, and they had an airplane with a very powerful camera 24 hours a day. and that was deemed like a unwarranted search.”
Undated
Joe Rogan said reports showed some police officers misused Flock surveillance camera access to spy on people they were interested in.
“they were using it to spy on chicks they were trying to date.”
Episodes