WV lawmakers again question Flock reps as they gather information for potential bills

West Virginia lawmakers on Monday took another crack at getting answers to their questions from Flock Safety, a manufacturer of artificial intelligence-driven police surveillance devices, as they work to introduce legislation to rein in the technology during the 2027 legislative session.

Dan Haley, chief legal officer for Flock Safety, and Matt Fanto, director of product security and privacy for the company, appeared before the Joint Standing Committee on Government Organization via video conference to answer questions.

Municipalities in West Virginia have moved forward with contracts with the company, which has been the subject of privacy and constitutional concerns nationally. 

Committee members have gone back and forth with the company in a series of four letters with questions raised by testimony from Kevin Kane, the company’s director of government affairs, during August legislative interim meetings. Lawmakers have been generally dissatisfied with answers the company has given to their 19 written questions on topics ranging from security incidents and unauthorized access to data governance and infrastructure. 

In a letter dated Oct. 12, lawmakers requested that a representative from the company appear before the committee during November interim meetings. 

Haley said a rescheduled speaking commitment prevented him from traveling to West Virginia to appear in person. 

He defended Lane’s presentation in his remarks Monday, saying that all Flock employees are expected to speak “honestly and forthrightly, and with the intention of answering the questions posed. And I’m confident that my colleague did so.”

Haley said the company recognizes the concerns that automatic license plate readers raise, and he encouraged lawmakers to pass legislation that addresses those concerns. 

“Matt and I are here appearing before you today as my colleagues have appeared before dozens of legislative bodies and hundreds of city and town councils across the country, because we believe that the issues surrounding these technologies deserve to be fully aired and openly debated, and because we believe that these powerful tools should be subject to appropriate regulation,” Haley said.

“This is why we’re urging you, as we have urged your peers in states across the country, to pass a bill that establishes commonsense privacy protections and usage guardrails, while ensuring that law enforcement agencies have the ability to use this technology to keep the communities you represent safe,” he said. 

Lawmakers asked Haley questions for about an hour and a half. Del. Tristin Leavitt, R-Kanawha, started with the nearly 20 questions the company and lawmakers had exchanged letters about. 

Leavitt told reporters after the meeting he was “not particularly” satisfied with the company’s latest responses to his inquiries, but he noted that the company did provide some new information and clarified parts of Kane’s testimony.

Leavitt raised specific concerns with an incident in Dunwoody, Georgia, where live feeds of a children’s gymnastic class were reportedly accessed by Flock employees making a sales pitch about the devices. Leavitt said reporting of the incident indicated that the live feed was viewed for several hours.

Haley told lawmakers the city of Dunwoody was a development partner with the company, and granted permission for the company to use its data for the purposes of demonstrating it to prospective customers.  

Haley speculated Monday that if the incident happened, it’s likely that the gym’s live feed was left in an open browser.

“That would be pure speculation,” Haley said. “There would be no reason for a sales rep or anyone else to sit on an open feed for four hours.”

Leavitt told reporters Monday he still has concerns about the level of access to data that Flock employees, and the company should have more of a sense of how much of that is able to happen, he said. 

“Maybe it is the case that someone left their computer open,” Leavitt said. “But to have hours and hours of video streaming is a concern for anyone, certainly for a parent. And it’s just not clear to me that any municipality actually signed up for that.”

Leavitt said he and other lawmakers are working on legislation that would address issues including corporate practice questions, along with law enforcement use and abuse.

“The reality for any legislation is that you’re going to put together 100 members in one body, and a third of that in another body, and everyone needs to get together and talk about it,” he said. “So, although we’ve been gathering lots of data for legislation, the most important thing will be really to sit down and see where the will of those different bodies is, and then hash out the details.”

Del. Ryan Browning, R-Wayne, told reporters after the meeting his worry with the technology is the potential abuse of the system. 

“My biggest concern at this point is pattern of life searches when crimes have not been committed, and whether it be targeting gun owners or the LGBTQ community or whatever civil rights violation you want to throw out there,” Browning said. “Whenever you start talking about searching for those types of or having those types of searches, then you start infringing on people’s rights, and I have a serious problem about that. That’s been my concern from the beginning.”

Browning said lawmakers are considering portions of model legislation called the PEEPS Act, which aims to limit law-enforcement misuse of the technology, along with parts of another lawmaker’s proposal. 

“We want to get a general consensus with our colleagues on what is palatable as far as a solution goes on a bill,” Browning said. “The goal at this point is to have something ready to go day one, so we can get it in the system, and then start the fun part of debating it, and making changes if needed.”

The 2027 legislative session begins Jan. 13, 2027.