Final yr, police surveillance startup Flock Security employed the mayor of a California metropolis with over 200,000 residents to advertise its merchandise. However the mayor, Ulises Cabrera of Moreno Valley, now claims Flock wrongfully terminated him, partly as a result of he refused to make use of his place as mayor to learn Flock, in line with a lawsuit Cabrera filed in opposition to Flock in November 2024.
Backed by Andreessen Horowitz, Flock has grown to a $3.5 billion valuation due to its gross sales of license plate recognition know-how throughout the U.S. (It additionally just lately expanded into drones.) However the lawsuit raises issues in regards to the affect of personal firms on elected officers.
Flock categorically denies all of Cabrera’s allegations and says its rent of a sitting mayor complies with California’s conflict-of-interest rules. Cabrera didn’t reply to a request for remark from TechCrunch as of press time.
The lawsuit, first reported on by surveillance trade publication IPVM, states that Cabrera labored as a Neighborhood Engagement Supervisor for Flock from February to June 2024. Cabrera has been mayor of Moreno Valley since 2022, though the place is part-time, in line with native newspaper Press-Enterprise.
A Flock job posting for this place says it comes with a wage of $100,000 – $140,000 plus extra inventory choices. It’s meant to “information regulation enforcement prospects” by way of the general public procurement course of “in collaboration with the Gross sales workforce,” the job description states. Throughout his time at Flock, Moreno gave displays selling Flock’s know-how to not less than two metropolis council conferences effectively outdoors his jurisdiction, one in Whitewater, Kansas and one other in Mammoth Lakes, California, in line with public assembly notes.
However round two weeks after Cabrera started working for Flock, a Flock worker allegedly requested that Cabrera “use his place as Mayor of Moreno Valley to learn the corporate,” Cabrera’s swimsuit reads. Involved in regards to the moral and authorized implications, Cabrera claims he forwarded the request to his authorized counsel whereas copying the Flock worker, who allegedly started “exhibiting retaliatory conduct” instantly afterwards. Cabrera’s swimsuit doesn’t go into additional element about what sort of request Flock allegedly made.
“Disturbing to see claims that this firm would stress employees to unethically misuse a authorities place,” Albert Fox Cahn, founder and government director of the Surveillance Expertise Oversight Challenge, tells TechCrunch. “This provides to the rising physique of proof that American surveillance is fueled by a damaged revolving door between trade and authorities.”
Flock says it confirmed with outdoors counsel that using a sitting mayor is authorized underneath California battle of curiosity rules and that it skilled Cabrera on them. The regulation bars public officers from making selections primarily based on their very own monetary pursuits, together with as staff in non-public firms. But it surely doesn’t prohibit them from taking non-public sector jobs.
Whereas campaigning for re-election, which he received in November 2024, Cabrera touted on his marketing campaign web site his earlier vote to fund a citywide Flock system in Moreno Valley (earlier than he began working at Flock), however he didn’t disclose on the web site that he ended up working for Flock afterwards whereas serving as mayor. His LinkedIn presently doesn’t point out Flock, both.
Cabrera additionally claims he suffered retaliation for elevating issues that Flock was considerably underreporting the variety of surveillance cameras put in in Carmel-by-the-Sea whereas engaged on a mission there. Final February, a separate Forbes investigation discovered that Flock digicam installations broke legal guidelines in not less than 5 states, together with by putting in cameras with out getting correct permits from authorities. Flock informed Forbes that the corporate “operates to the very best of our skills throughout the bounds of the regulation.”
Cabrera additionally claims the Flock worker sexually harassed him by rubbing his leg in opposition to his at a convention and disclosing upcoming parental depart. Flock says it categorically denies all of Cabrera’s allegations.
This lawsuit marks the newest episode in Flock’s latest authorized troubles. In April, a civil rights group sued Flock, arguing that the corporate’s widespread surveillance violates the Fourth Modification. In September, the Texas Division of Public Security despatched Flock a stop and desist, claiming it didn’t have the correct license to function in non-public houses and companies.
