September 9, 2026
Flock Safety has a massive surveillance network of 120,000 cameras in 49 states, recording 20 billion vehicle scans every month. Right now, Congress has a chance to rein it in.
As lawmakers negotiate the five-year surface transportation bill, they can stop federal highway funding from going to jurisdictions that use automated license plate readers for anything other than toll collection.
Reps. Scott Perry and Jesús "Chuy" García have already proposed this bipartisan safeguard. Now Congress needs to include it in the final bill.
The overwhelming majority of people captured by Flock's cameras have done nothing wrong. Yet their vehicles, license plates, locations, and movements still get added to a searchable surveillance system that law enforcement across the country can access.
We've already seen Flock technology be abused. At least 50 law enforcement officers have been accused or charged with improperly using license plate reader systems – including one officer who used the technology to stalk his girlfriend.
In another disturbing example, a Texas police officer used Flock to search for a woman across state lines who had an abortion. And in Florida a woman spent 13 days in jail after police mistakenly arrested her based on a vehicle description search in the Flock database.
Thanks for everything you do.
Josh
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