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Flock Safety CEO to face surveillance debate at Disrupt
Flock Safety CEO Garrett Langley will speak at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 as the company faces both rapid growth and mounting privacy backlash.
Image: TechCrunch
The fight over privacy versus public safety is only getting sharper, and Flock Safety is right in the middle of it. At TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, founder and CEO Garrett Langley will take the stage to discuss AI, surveillance, and the future of public safety during the event, which runs October 13–15 at San Francisco’s Moscone Center.
Atlanta-based Flock Safety has become one of the most closely watched surveillance startups in the U.S. Before founding Flock, Langley worked on the car subscription service Clutch and the platform Experience, where he led teams including engineering and design before the company sold to Cox Enterprises for $200 million in 2014.
Flock launched in 2017, with Langley joining co-founders Matt Feury and Paige Todd. The company went through Y Combinator and built a fast-growing business selling surveillance technology to businesses and law enforcement agencies. It is best known for license plate recognition, but its products also include more general-purpose surveillance cameras, and it has been developing drone first responders following its acquisition of Aerodome.
The company’s latest fundraise, a $275 million round last year, valued Flock at $7.5 billion, up from $4.8 billion the year before. Since launch, it has raised $950 million in total.
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That growth has come with intense criticism. Privacy advocates, including the ACLU, and members of the public have pushed back against the company, with some people even destroying Flock cameras. Criticism has also focused on Flock continuing to offer its cameras and databases to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Recent setbacks have added to the pressure. Amazon’s Ring recently ended its partnership with Flock, and the LAPD allowed its deal with the company to lapse this month.
Langley’s appearance is expected to be one of the tougher conversations at Disrupt this year, as Flock’s supporters and critics scrutinize how the company sees the increasingly intertwined future of AI and surveillance.
Security Editor
Sophia unpacks the invisible wars happening on our networks. Covering cybersecurity, privacy legislation, and cryptography, she exposes how our data is weaponized and defended. Before joining for(geeks), she spent years as a penetration tester. She's the reason the rest of the team uses physical security keys.
via TechCrunch
