Brady Leonard
Role at the time: Fellow at the Independent Institute, writing a commentary
Response to this claim
Flock's August 2026 safeguards meaningfully address privacy and misuse concerns about its license-plate reader network.
“Until courts and legislatures require law enforcement to obtain a neutral, probable-cause warrant before accessing aggregated ALPR databases, Flock’s new guardrails will remain an administrative band-aid on a (likely) unconstitutional dragnet.”
Why we used this label
The case asks whether Flock's August 2026 safeguard package (a seven-day default retention period, Evidence Mode, offense-based sharing limits, mandatory Audit Assistance, proactive lockouts and case codes) addresses privacy and misuse concerns about its plate-reader network. Leonard calls the seven-day default and automated lockouts important steps toward corporate self-regulation, then concludes that the guardrails treat symptoms and will remain a band-aid until warrants are required. Condemns fits because his conclusion rejects the package as an answer to the concerns. Mixed or conditional is the closest competing label; it loses because his credit is a preface to that judgment, not a competing one.