OP for sharing this on hackernews (and I talked to Tyler Dukes a bit about this). I think ALPR's are good investments, but having more rigorous standards in place for when people can do searches is necessary. There are rules for when you can run a criminal history background in states I am familiar with (that are policy set, so less rigorous than a warrant), that I think should be applied the same for searching license plates without too much friction for law enforcement.

I think Flock has a good product (and ditto I think Dolt is neat!) But that said, this 10% metric is so ridiculous it rises to the level I need to make a comment. Imagine I did something to decrease crime by 10% in two cities, and then went and made a claim like "I decreased crime 10% in the US" -- this is Flock's claim. (The study to get the 10% clearance estimate is crazy bad as well, but this 10% of solved crimes in US is such a bizarro projection to the entire US it is inarguable as to its absurdity).