San Francisco, once notorious for car break-ins, has seen a dramatic decrease in major crimes, with statistics showing a 44% drop from 2023 to 2025. This turnaround, alongside similar improvements in other cities, highlights the potential of technological investment in public safety. The shift in mindset from crime being an "unsolvable problem" to one with tangible solutions is palpable.
This progress is largely attributed to the work of Flock Safety, a company founded by individuals frustrated with unsolved crime. While there's bipartisan agreement that crime is a problem, innovation in law enforcement has lagged, with many departments struggling with staffing and relying on outdated methods.
Flock Safety's core insight was identifying vehicles as a critical weak point in crime-solving. Traditional Automatic License Plate Readers (ALPR) were prohibitively expensive and limited in scope. Flock developed a more cost-effective system using modern computer vision.
Their cameras capture not just license plates, but also vehicle make, model, and color, even for cars with obscured or missing plates. This detailed data provides law enforcement with crucial leads, turning vehicles into key pieces of evidence.
The company claims its technology helps solve around 700,000 crimes annually, including over 1,000 missing persons cases. Cities like Tulsa have seen unprecedented success, solving all homicide cases in 2024, and Lakewood, Washington, recorded zero homicides in 2025.
The Information Gap in Crime Fighting
Flock Safety views crime as an information problem. Traditional policing relies heavily on human observation and investigation, which can be inefficient and prone to error. The impact of technology on crime rates is becoming increasingly evident, echoing the discussions around San Francisco's AI Renaissance: Bridging Innovation and Civic Progress and the broader implications for cities, even amidst debates like those surrounding President Trump's calls for National Guard deployment in SF loom over city’s AI-driven resurgence.
By democratizing access to advanced investigative tools, Flock aims to elevate the capabilities of all law enforcement departments, not just a select few.
The company insists its systems have built-in privacy protections and are designed for investigative use, not general surveillance. This approach seeks to move policing from subjective methods to more objective, data-driven practices, enhancing public safety and community trust.
Garrett Langley Flock Safety, a co-founder, expressed a belief that rampant unsolved crime will eventually be viewed as a solvable problem of the past, overcome by innovation. This vision is shared by law enforcement agencies and communities desperate for improved safety, aligning with the principles discussed in Reimagining Public Safety: Technology, Culture, and the Fight Against Crime.
