Flock’s CEO Is Lying to Cops About 404 Media's Reporting on Abortion Case

Flock CEO Garrett Langley privately told Ohio law enforcement and government officials that 404 Media's reporting on Texas police using Flock cameras to track a woman who self-administered an abortion was "entirely false" — a characterization that 404 Media's Joseph Cox reports is contradicted by court records, police documents, and the outlet's own prior coverage.

The August call was recorded by Signal Akron journalist Doug Brown, who attended alongside an Ohio lawmaker and shared the recording with 404 Media. On the call, Langley also advised law enforcement on media strategy, telling officers to steer clear of national outlets and lean on local reporters. "Let me handle The New York Times, you handle your local media. They want to hear from you, you know your reporters, they'll pick up a sob story," Langley said, according to the recording. The call comes as Langley has been conducting a public media blitz, including an appearance on the All-In Podcast and an interview with The New York Times.

Langley's central claim — that the story was false because Texas law prohibits administering but not receiving an abortion, meaning the woman could not have been under investigation — is undercut by court records. Court documents obtained by the Electronic Frontier Foundation and shared with 404 Media show that Texas authorities discussed whether they could charge the woman with a crime on the same day they ran the Flock search, ultimately concluding they lacked a statutory basis. Police also categorized the investigation as a "death investigation." 404 Media first reported the case in May 2025, revealing that authorities searched Flock cameras across the country — including in states where abortion is legal — for the woman.

Langley also told the Ohio officials that the Flock search was conducted because the woman's family feared for her safety in an abusive relationship. 404 Media's reporting found no mention of family concern in the police documents; the investigation was initiated at the request of the woman's partner, who had seen her the day after the abortion but did not contact police until more than two weeks later. The man faces trial on charges related to alleged abuse, per 404 Media. When asked for comment, Flock PR manager Paris Lewbel pointed to the court documents showing the woman was not charged — without addressing the fact that charging her was explicitly discussed.

This is not an isolated pattern for Langley or the company. Forbes reported in September 2025 that Langley called DeFlock, an open-source map of Flock camera locations, a "terroristic organization"; he apologized for those comments in July 2026. Separately, a former Flock government affairs manager told 404 Media he was told internally that Flock had no relationship with ICE, only to later learn the company had given a division of ICE direct access to its network through a pilot program. And the ACLU documented a case in which Flock's chief information security officer told an Oshkosh, Wisconsin city council the tool could not produce a heat map of an individual's movements — a claim the council deemed false, revoking Flock's contract the day after approving it. Lewbel called that incident "a misspoken statement by one employee in a contentious meeting" that was corrected the following day.

The man accused of abusing the woman whose case is at the center of Langley's disputed claims is scheduled to stand trial later this year, per 404 Media, which could surface additional documents related to the police investigation and the Flock searches.