The a16z Show What It Takes to Clear a Million Crimes a Year with Flock Safety's CEO
133 snips
Mar 11, 2026 
Garrett Langley, founder and CEO of Flock Safety and an electrical engineer who built license-plate cameras after a neighborhood theft, tells the story behind a company now deployed in thousands of cities. He discusses scaling cameras to drones, real-time 911 integration, AI orchestration for triage, privacy and audit controls, and how hardware, procurement, and legal limits shape city safety tools.
AI Snips
Chapters
Books
Transcript
Episode notes
Drone Followed Van And Enabled Tactical Apprehension
- In a Levi's store armed robbery, Flock's drone autonomously flew to the scene, identified a distinctive van, and provided eyes so officers executed a safe driveway apprehension.
- The drone avoided a high-speed chase and enabled a tactical pin-in arrest.
Drones Create New Asymmetric Criminal Threats
- Drones enable asymmetric criminal tactics (reconnaissance, prison smuggling) while law enforcement struggled with countermeasures due to FAA rules.
- Criminals mount LTE-enabled drones with night vision to scout homes and drop contraband into prisons.
Objective LPR Policing Reduces Bias And Builds Trust
- Objective, event-driven policing (e.g., chasing stolen cars) reduces biased historical hotspot policing and improves community trust.
- Oakland adopted LPR-focused tactics to police where crime happens now rather than where it happened historically.
