Flock drops pilot that listened for human distress on street sensors

After criticism, Flock Safety says it has ended a pilot feature that used acoustic sensors to detect signs of human distress.

Flock Safety announced it will end a pilot of its acoustic 'Distress Detection' feature, which was designed to identify signs of human distress through the company's audio sensors. The feature ran on Flock's acoustic gunshot detection devices, formerly branded Flock Raven and now called Audio Detection. In a blog post, Flock said it removed the feature after consideration and community consultation.

The rollout drew scrutiny from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which warned about it in October 2025. According to EFF, early advertisements said the feature would listen for 'screaming,' language later softened to 'distress.' The group noted the devices' marketing describes listening for 'community disruption,' including non-violent events like fireworks and car sideshows, and argued some forms of such audio monitoring could run afoul of state eavesdropping laws. EFF also pointed to a Chicago incident where acoustic gunshot detection led police to fire at children lighting fireworks.

For the shared public commons, pulling back always-on voice monitoring keeps a piece of ambient privacy intact. Sensors that scan public spaces for human sounds normalize a surveillance layer that is hard to reverse once installed; halting the pilot leaves streets less continuously listened to. Flock remains best known for its network of automated license plate readers, so the broader surveillance footprint persists.

The account here comes from EFF's advocacy commentary. Flock's stated reason was community consultation, not a concession of wrongdoing, and the underlying gunshot detection hardware remains in the field. Whether the distress feature stays retired, and whether other vendors follow, is what to watch.

Source: EFF Deeplinks