# Flock Audit and Compliance Controls and Gaps This page collects the ALPR audit and compliance material in the PDFOI-2026-1874 production: a run of 2026 product-update and release-note emails that [[Flock Safety, Inc.]] and [[Axon Enterprise, Inc.]] (Axon Fusus) sent to [[Little Rock Police Department]] users. The record documents new search-justification, retention, and oversight controls layered onto both ALPR platforms in early 2026, and it also documents two audit-log limitations the vendors themselves disclosed: Flock's masking of audit records with "***" and Axon Fusus's statement that adjusting search confidence levels is not logged. The page describes what the vendor notices state; it does not establish how LRPD has configured any of these controls. ## What's inside The relevant items are vendor-authored, not LRPD-authored: - Flock Safety "PRODUCT UPDATES" / Trust & Compliance newsletter emails (Emails 1-24.pdf, in the p. 486-565 and p. 1330 ranges) describing a mandatory NIBRS-based Offense Type for every search, an optional Search Reason field, offense-type/search-usage analytics, a Network Audit filter for out-of-state searches, an Audit Assistance Tool, built-in policy filters, 30-day data retention, and the "***" audit-record disclaimer. - Axon Fusus Release Notes (Emails 1-24.pdf, releases 2026.14 at p. 476-477 and 2026.4 at p. 555-556) adding a required Search purpose / Offense category / Case number on ALPR searches, and disclosing that confidence-level adjustments are not logged. These were distributed to the LRPD addressees who appear elsewhere in this production as Flock and Axon Fusus users; this page does not re-list those rosters (see [[Flock Deconfliction Advisories and the LRPD Sharing Network]] and [[Flock-Axon API Dispute and the Dual RTCC Stack]]). ## Key takeaways ### Flock: mandatory NIBRS Offense Type, Search Reason optional Flock made an Offense Type selection mandatory on every LPR search and demoted Search Reason to optional. The product-update email states: "We now require an Offense Type from a prefilled dropdown for every search. Before running a search, users are required to select an offense type from a NIBRS-based list" (Emails 1-24.pdf p. 564, "We now require an Offense Type from a prefilled dropdown for every search"). A fuller version of the same rollout adds: "The 'Search Reason' field will remain as an optional way to add additional context" (Emails 1-24.pdf p. 645, "The 'Search Reason' field will remain as an optional way to add additional context"). ### Flock: offense-type and per-agency search-usage analytics Flock states it is building reporting on top of the new offense-type field: "We're also building offense type reporting and search-usage analytics by agency to provide deeper visibility and support data-driven accountability" (Emails 1-24.pdf p. 645, "search-usage analytics by agency"). A later newsletter references "Offense Type Analytics (early access), which helps you quickly pull key stats, spot patterns, and monitor how Flock is used" (Emails 1-24.pdf p. 488, "Offense Type Analytics"). ### Flock: out-of-state Network Audit filter An April 2026 Flock newsletter announces a filter aimed specifically at out-of-state querying: "Use the new Network Audit filter to see only out-of-state searches for any date range. Quickly confirm there's no out-of-state activity, or review the searches that did happen, across your full audit history" (Emails 1-24.pdf p. 1330, "see only out-of-state searches for any date range"). ### Flock: Audit Assistance Tool, built-in policy filters, 30-day retention A May 2026 Flock Trust & Compliance newsletter describes an oversight tool that flags atypical activity: it surfaces "search activity that might be outside typical agency usage so it can be reviewed, making routine oversight faster, more consistent, and easier to explain, all at no extra cost" (Emails 1-24.pdf p. 487, "search activity that might be outside typical agency usage"). The same run describes pre-execution policy filters: "Built-in filters prevent restricted searches from running at all, helping ensure compliance with local laws and sensitive use case protections" (Emails 1-24.pdf p. 491, "prevent restricted searches from running at all"). It also reiterates retention: the Compliance Tools center covers "built-in guardrails, agency-controlled sharing, transparency portals, audit assistance, and 30-day data retention that keep every search accountable" (Emails 1-24.pdf p. 486, "30-day data retention that keep every search accountable"). ### Axon Fusus: required Search purpose / Offense category / Case number [[Axon Enterprise, Inc.]] added comparable search-justification fields to Axon Fusus ALPR Search. Release 2026.14 states: "A new Search purpose section is available in ALPR Search. Use this field to record investigative intent and support compliance requirements" and "Offense category is now required for law enforcement agencies. Users must select an enabled category before running a search" (Emails 1-24.pdf p. 476, "Offense category is now required for law enforcement agencies"). The same release makes the case-number field configurable but required by default: "Case number is available for all agencies. Administrators can configure this field as Don't show, Optional, or Required. By default, the field is Required with a minimum of three characters" (Emails 1-24.pdf p. 476, "By default, the field is Required with a minimum of three characters"). ### Gap 1 — Flock: audit records masked with "***" Flock's own disclaimer states that masked entries in an audit record are deliberately not shown to anyone but the agency that ran the search: "We've added clear disclaimer text to explain what information means when customers or the public see records with ***. This message clarifies that the information does exist, but is intentionally only visible to the searching agency" (Emails 1-24.pdf p. 564, "the information does exist, but is intentionally only visible to the searching agency"). The same disclaimer is reprinted in Emails 25-35.pdf p. 275. The record does not state which fields (user names, plates, filters, case numbers) are masked in any particular export; it states only that "***" indicates information that exists but is restricted to the searching agency. ### Gap 2 — Axon Fusus: confidence-level changes are not logged Axon Fusus release 2026.4 added adjustable confidence levels for ALPR vehicle-attribute searches and, in the same notes, disclosed that those adjustments produce no audit entry: "Some third-party providers may not support confidence-based searches. Adjusting confidence levels does not create audit log entries" (Emails 1-24.pdf p. 556, "Adjusting confidence levels does not create audit log entries"). ## People and orgs mentioned - [[Flock Safety, Inc.]] — author of the Offense Type, analytics, Network Audit filter, Audit Assistance, policy-filter, retention, and "***" disclaimer updates. - [[Axon Enterprise, Inc.]] — author of the Axon Fusus Search purpose / Offense category / Case number controls and the confidence-not-logged disclosure. - [[Little Rock Police Department]] — recipient agency for both vendors' product-update emails. These vendor emails are addressed to LRPD personnel who appear as Flock and Axon Fusus users elsewhere in this production; named individuals are not reproduced here because the audit/compliance content is vendor boilerplate not specific to any officer. ## Concepts invoked - [[Flock Audit Logs and Retention]] — the 30-day retention figure, the offense-type/search-usage analytics, the Network Audit filter, and the "***" masking all concern what Flock logs, for how long, and who can see it. - [[CJIS Compliance]] — Flock frames the offense-type, policy-filter, and audit features as compliance controls; the parallel Axon Fusus "Search purpose" field is described as supporting "compliance requirements." - [[Real-Time Crime Center (RTCC)]] — both platforms function as LRPD's ALPR/RTCC search surfaces; the audit controls govern queries run through that center. - [[Automatic License Plate Reader (ALPR)]] — all controls here gate or record ALPR/LPR searches. ## Events documented No discrete operational LRPD event is recorded on this page; the items are dated vendor product announcements (Flock newsletters Feb-May 2026; Axon Fusus releases 2026.4 and 2026.14). The deconfliction advisories that exercise these audit trails are documented at [[Flock Deconfliction Advisories and the LRPD Sharing Network]]. ## Cross-references - [[Flock Deconfliction Advisories and the LRPD Sharing Network]] — the per-search advisory records that the audit features above describe, govern, or partially mask. - [[Flock-Axon API Dispute and the Dual RTCC Stack]] — context for why LRPD operates both Flock and Axon Fusus ALPR search surfaces, each with its own audit regime. - [[Federal Data-Sharing Controls and Federal-Access Posture]] — the same Flock newsletters carry the agency-level federal data-sharing control; the Network Audit filter's out-of-state focus is adjacent to that posture. - [[LRPD FOIA Handling and Disclosure Posture]] — the "***" disclaimer bears directly on what an outside requester can see in a Flock audit export. - [[T004 - Item-3 No-Records vs Deconfliction Audit Trail]] — the tension between LRPD's "no records" response on the Item-3 deconfliction question and the contemporaneous existence of a Flock audit trail that masks fields with "***." - [[Surveillance Data Sharing — Default-On Posture]] — the marketed audit/oversight controls run alongside Flock's default cross-agency sharing model. ## Open questions / follow-ups - The marketed-transparency-versus-masking tension is on its face: Flock simultaneously offers "search-usage analytics by agency," an Audit Assistance Tool, and a Network Audit filter, while disclosing that audit records can be masked with "***" so that the underlying information is "intentionally only visible to the searching agency." The production does not contain a Flock audit export from LRPD showing which fields are masked in practice; that cannot be verified from this record. - The record does not state whether LRPD has enabled the Built-In Policy Filters, configured the Axon Fusus Case number field as Required, or used the Network Audit filter. These are vendor capabilities described in product notices, not confirmed LRPD configurations. - The "Adjusting confidence levels does not create audit log entries" disclosure identifies a specific blind spot in Axon Fusus's ALPR attribute-search audit trail. Whether an equivalent gap exists in Flock's audit trail is not addressed in this production. - Relevance to [[T004 - Item-3 No-Records vs Deconfliction Audit Trail]]: the "***" disclaimer establishes that Flock audit data can exist while being withheld from non-searching parties. This is documentary context for, but not proof of, the Item-3 "no records" question; the production does not show how LRPD reconciled a "no records" disposition with the audit-trail features described here.