Flock expects drones to supply nearly half its revenue as cities ban its plate readers

A 911 call comes in, and the first thing sent is a drone. In a drone-as-first-responder program, the aircraft either clears the call so no officer goes, or scouts the scene before personnel arrive ^[6]. Flock's share of the agencies running these programs is about 9 percent ^[17].

At Werner's pace, a year brings about 1,500 new FAA approvals ^[18]. An approval is a different unit from an agency, so the figure measures demand roughly.

The cameras are the other half of the business. Over much of the last year, Flock's cameras were blacked out, painted over and wrapped in trash bags ^[1], and cities banned its plate readers ^[2]. Fast Company calls the backlash a contributor to the company's financial challenges ^[3]. It did not report how much revenue either line brings in today, or when drones would reach nearly half, so the forecast rests on Langley's own statement ^[5].

Supply explains some of the timing. President Donald Trump banned sales of Chinese drones such as DJI in December 2025, and Fast Company writes that building domestically lets Flock gain market share ^[12]. The Alpha can travel at an industry-leading 60 mph and fly 45 minutes between charges, according to the same report ^[21].

The people quoted disagree about what that adds up to. Flock public safety manager Paris Lewbel told Fast Company, "The technology really speaks for itself" ^[19]. San Francisco police credit drones as a key aspect of a recent drop in the crime rate ^[20]. Beryl Lipton, a senior investigative researcher, said, "There are very high-resolution cameras that can see thousands of feet away and are designed to not be seen by the people on the street" ^[14]. Bryan Cox, head of police accountability at the San Francisco Public Defender's Office, said police can now surveil first and "collect all the data and figure out what the problem is" ^[16]. In Fast Company's account, that raises important constitutional questions about privacy ^[16].

We think the plate-reader bans should not be read as a ruling on Flock's drones. A bagged camera is something a resident can see and a city can count, and Lipton's description of drone cameras leaves residents without an equivalent ^[14]. Before a city or company signs for drones, we'd put each deployment through two questions. The first is what starts collection: a 911 call, or nothing in particular. The second is who outside the agency can tell the sensor is there. A call-triggered, publicly visible deployment is the one a police chief can defend on Friday. One with no trigger and no outside visibility is the one Cox describes. The tradeoff is reach: a narrow trigger gives up some of what makes the aircraft attractive to a buyer.