In an August call with Ohio law enforcement and government officials, Flock’s CEO Garrett Langley repeatedly lied about his surveillance technology’s role in tracking a woman who had self-administered an abortion, the context around the tracking of the woman, and 404 Media’s coverage of that watershed incident.
asserted
who → lie → incident
Langley claimed that the story is “entirely false,” despite court records, police reports, and 404 Media’s other reporting documenting the case in detail.
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story → claim → detail
The candid comments were recorded by Signal Akron journalist Doug Brown, who sat in on the call with an Ohio lawmaker and then shared them with 404 Media.
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who → record → Media
The recording shows how Langley speaks in private with government officials when the conversation is not intended to be broadcast, and comes amid a PR campaign to recast his embattled company.
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conversation → show → company
Recently Langley has gone on something of a media blitz, speaking to outlets like The New York Times and appearing on the tech-focused All-In Podcast.
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Langley → go → Podcast
Those conversations were, obviously, meant to be consumed publicly.
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conversations → mean → ?
Behind the scenes, Langley speaks very differently.
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Langley → speak → scenes
In the call, Langley strategized with cops about how to deal with journalists, suggesting that they avoid talking to national outlets and that cops focus on telling “sob” stories.
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cops → strategize → stories
“Let me handle The New York Times, you handle your local media.
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you → let → media
They want to hear from you, you know your reporters, they’ll pick up a sob story,” Langley said.
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Langley → want → story
“There’s a story reported by 404 Media of a Texas officer using Flock to try to find a woman who had an abortion.
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who → ’ → abortion
And it’s entirely false.
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it → ’ → ?
They knew it was false.
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it → know → ?
Because there’s a few things, right, because one, it’s not illegal to have an abortion in Texas.
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it → ’ → Texas
It’s illegal to administer an abortion.
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It → ’ → abortion
So the woman could never have been under investigation for having an abortion.
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woman → have → abortion
So that’s problem one,” Langley said in the meeting.
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Langley → ’ → meeting
In fact, court records obtained by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and shared with 404 Media show that Texas authorities did discuss whether they could charge the woman with a crime on the same day they performed the Flock search.
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they → obtain → search
An affidavit said, “it was discussed at the time with the District Attorney’s Office and learned the State could not statutorily charge [the woman] for taking the pill to cause the abortion or miscarriage of the non-viable fetus.”
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State → say → fetus
Police documents categorize their work on the case as a “death investigation.”
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documents → categorize → investigation
In that case 404 Media revealed in May 2025 which Langley called “entirely false,” authorities in Texas searched Flock cameras nationwide for a woman who self-administered an abortion.
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who → reveal → abortion
That search included cameras in states where abortion is legal.
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abortion → include → states
The incident showed in real terms what healthcare access and privacy advocates had warned about: that in the wake of Roe v. Wade, more law enforcement may use surveillance technology to track down people who are seeking reproductive healthcare.
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who → show → healthcare
At the time, the Sheriff Adam King of the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office told 404 Media the woman’s “family was worried that she was going to bleed to death, and we were trying to find her to get her to a hospital.”
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we → tell → hospital
(It later turned out the Flock search was performed more than two weeks after the abortion, making this explanation dubious).
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explanation → turn → abortion
The records were part of an arrest affidavit against the woman’s partner, who was arrested for allegedly threatening her at gunpoint on the day she took an abortion pill.
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she → arrest → pill
Police investigative documents obtained by 404 Media further show that police were initially treating this as an investigation rather than a wellness check.
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police → obtain → investigation
A police incident report describes the police collecting evidence from the woman’s partner’s home, including the FedEx packaging and instructions for the abortion pill she took, photos her partner took, and other evidence.
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partner → describe → pill
In the meeting, Langley continued, “The second problem is if the 404 Media group would have taken the time to conduct an actual journalistic investigation, they would have found out that two weeks later, when all this came out, she was in an abusive relationship and the family was concerned that she was in danger.
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she → continue → danger
They were trying to find her because they were worried her life was at risk.
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life → try → risk
404 Media has repeatedly reported that the police documents do not mention the woman’s family having any concern about her.
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family → report → her
The entire investigation that led to the Flock searches was performed at the behest of her abusive partner, and the police documents show that the man had seen her a day after the abortion but did not call the police until weeks later.
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man → lead → police
The man’s trial, related to charges around his alleged abuse, is scheduled for later this year.
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trial → relate → year
It is unclear what Langley means by “two weeks later, when all this came out.”
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this → mean → what
He may be referring to the fact that the police investigation and the Flock searches only happened more than two weeks after the woman had the abortion, which is a fact that people only know because of 404 Media’s journalistic investigation and the EFF, which obtained the relevant court records that 404 Media reported on.
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Media → refer → that
It was only after our reporting was published that police created a new document retroactively providing the justification as being concerned for the woman’s safety.
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police → publish → safety
When 404 Media asked for comment on Langley’s comments from the call, Flock public relations manager Paris Lewbel said the court documents showed that the woman could not be charged with a crime.
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woman → ask → crime
This ignores the fact that they did discuss doing so.
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they → ignore → fact
Langley has a pattern of making contradictory statements or incendiary ones he later has to walk back.
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he → have → statements
In an interview with Forbes in September, Langley described DeFlock, the open source map of Flock camera locations, as a “terroristic organization.”
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Langley → describe → organization
…and 10 more, not listed.
The Aporia
