“It’s just gunshots”
Flock Safety’s chief executive, Garrett Langley, told a TechCrunch Disrupt audience in San Francisco on Tuesday that the company’s audio sensors detect only gunfire. Asked about marketing that says the systems detect more than that, he replied: “It’s just gunshots.” Protesters gathered outside the venue while he spoke.
Flock’s own product page for Gunshot Detection says otherwise. It lists four capabilities: pinpointing gunfire instantly, detecting street takeovers early, identifying severe crashes in real time, and sending alerts for car crashes, fireworks and sideshows. The product FAQ goes further, saying that in addition to gunshots the system can detect fireworks, sideshows and other disruptive community events, and that its detection library is expanding.
What the company said afterwards
A Flock spokesperson, Paris Lewbel, told TechCrunch the technology is primarily used for gunfire but can also detect fireworks, sideshows and potential car crashes. The company said Langley’s remarks meant the audio tool does not monitor conversations or analyse speech, and that it does not currently detect human screaming or distress.
That last clause has history. When Flock announced the feature in 2025, it said the sensors would listen for screaming. After objections from privacy groups including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the website was changed to refer to “sounds of human distress”. Flock later said it removed distress detection from the customers who had tried it.
Why a gap like this matters
The question is not whether a classifier can tell a firework from a gunshot. It is what a city signs up for. A procurement decision made on “it’s just gunshots” is a different decision from one made on a detection library the vendor says is expanding, and the second description is the one on the vendor’s own website.
Langley also said the product exists because most people do not call 911 after hearing a gunshot, and that Flock’s microphone count is comparable to ShotSpotter’s, which Wired reported at about 25,000 microphones as of 2024.
The company is under pressure on several fronts. Texas and Florida have moved to cut ties with Flock over data privacy concerns, Amazon’s Ring has ended its partnership with the company, the American Civil Liberties Union is among the groups scrutinising it, and some members of the public have destroyed its surveillance cameras.
What to watch
TechCrunch’s article does not name a city using the audio detection feature specifically, and Flock has not published a list. The checkable thing is narrow and concrete: whether the product page changes again. It changed once already, after the screaming row. If “it’s just gunshots” is the company’s position, the four bullet points under Gunshot Detection are the test of it.
