Flock Cameras Unite Hawley and Sanders Against AI Surveillance
Left says
- •Documented cases of officers misusing Flock searches to track ex-partners, including one instance checking whether a woman visited an abortion clinic, show how easily this data can be weaponized against ordinary people rather than criminals.
- •Candidates like Abdul El-Sayed are linking opponents' past surveillance-friendly statements to a broader pattern of AI companies and politicians expanding tracking infrastructure without meaningful public consent or oversight.
- •The rapid, unregulated growth of a 120,000-camera network run by a private company reflects a larger pattern where AI-driven tools for data centers, surveillance, and profit outpace democratic accountability.
- •Opioid settlement funds meant for addiction treatment and recovery services have instead been diverted to purchase surveillance cameras, raising concerns about misplaced government priorities.
Right says
- •Americans should not surrender their Fourth Amendment privacy rights simply because they are driving to work, church, or school, especially when a private company's cameras track their movements by default.
- •Sen. Hawley's investigation demands transparency from Flock on how data is stored, searched, shared, or potentially sold, given the company's rapid growth and $8.3 billion valuation.
- •Local officials in places like Knox County approved camera expansions without proper contracts, oversight, or public debate, exposing a troubling lack of accountability before residents were put under surveillance.
- •Removing Flock cameras has real public-safety costs, as seen in unsolved shootings and hit-and-run cases in cities that decommissioned their systems, showing the tradeoff isn't one-sided.
Common Take
High Consensus- Flock operates roughly 120,000 cameras nationwide conducting around 20 billion vehicle scans per month.
- Multiple documented cases show police officers and civilian employees misusing the system to track ex-partners or run unauthorized personal searches.
- Sen. Josh Hawley and Sen. Bernie Sanders have both called for federal scrutiny or legislation targeting Flock's data practices, an unusual bipartisan alignment.
- Dozens of cities and counties across the political spectrum, from Tempe to Asheville to Knox County, have moved to cancel or reconsider their Flock contracts amid transparency and privacy concerns.
The Arguments
Left argues
Documented cases show officers using Flock to stalk ex-partners, including checking whether a woman visited an abortion clinic, proving this infrastructure inevitably gets weaponized against ordinary people rather than criminals.
Right counters
These abuses are precisely why Hawley's investigation demands accountability and audit trails rather than simply trusting a private company's internal policies, but they're an argument for guardrails and oversight, not necessarily proof the technology itself is irredeemable.
Right argues
Americans do not surrender Fourth Amendment privacy rights simply because they drive to work, church, or school, and a private company should not be allowed to build a de facto national tracking database with no congressional rules governing retention, sharing, or sale of that data.
Left counters
This constitutional framing is correct but incomplete: the deeper problem is that unregulated AI-driven surveillance profit models will keep producing new Flocks unless Congress addresses the underlying incentive structure, not just this one company's data policies.
Right argues
Local officials in places like Knox County approved massive camera expansions with no valid contract, no mayoral review, and purchases structured just below approval thresholds, exposing a systemic failure of basic democratic accountability before residents were ever surveilled.
Left counters
This lack of oversight is exactly the pattern progressives have flagged for years — AI and surveillance vendors moving faster than democratic institutions can regulate them — and it validates calls for federal, not just local, intervention.
Right argues
Removing Flock cameras has real public-safety costs, as seen in unsolved shootings in El Cerrito and an unresolved fatal hit-and-run in Framingham, showing that the privacy-versus-safety tradeoff is genuine and not one-sided.
Left counters
Citing a handful of anecdotal unsolved cases doesn't establish that Flock reliably solves crimes better than traditional policing, especially given a California department found a 71% misread rate on alerts, meaning the technology's actual crime-fighting value may be overstated.
Left argues
Diverting opioid settlement funds meant for addiction treatment toward Flock camera purchases reveals a broader pattern of misplaced government priorities, using money earmarked for healing communities to instead surveil them.
Right counters
This is a genuine misallocation scandal, but it's a spending-oversight failure specific to how localities managed settlement funds, not necessarily evidence that Flock cameras themselves are the core problem — the same money could have been misspent on any number of unrelated purchases.
Challenge Questions
These questions target genuine internal contradictions — meant to provoke honest reflection.
Right asks Left
“If the left's core objection is unaccountable AI infrastructure expanding without public consent, why do many of the same candidates and officials support other forms of government data collection and AI regulation carve-outs when convenient, rather than applying a consistent standard against unchecked surveillance infrastructure regardless of who operates it?”
Left asks Right
“If conservatives' objection to Flock is rooted in Fourth Amendment principles against warrantless mass surveillance, how do they reconcile that with support for other law-enforcement surveillance tools and data-sharing practices that raise the same constitutional concerns but haven't attracted the same bipartisan outrage?”
Outlier Report
Left Fringe
Progressive candidates like William Lawrence (MI House candidate) and activists framing this as part of a broader anti-AI-capitalism narrative represent maybe 15-20% of the left; most Democrats/liberals care about privacy misuse but don't extend it to full anti-AI-industry critique.
Right Fringe
The Tennessee county commissioner who called for hanging Flock's CEO represents an extreme fringe (likely under 5% of the right); most conservatives favor investigation and accountability, not violent rhetoric, though populist-libertarian figures like Hawley represent a more mainstream-right skepticism of corporate surveillance that overlaps with traditional law-and-order Republicans who still support the technology.
Noise Assessment
Moderate noise: the story is real (documented abuse cases, actual Senate investigation, actual city contract cancellations), but the intensity of framing—both 'AI oligarch surveillance state' rhetoric and 'hang the CEO' comments—reflects activist and online amplification rather than the more measured concern most ordinary Americans likely feel.
Sources (9)
<p>Flock cameras are joining data centers as a top midterm boogeyman, with members of Congress and congressional candidates trying to harness a <a href="https://www.axios.com/2026/08/17/flock-camera-local-opposition-surveillance" target="_blank">sudden groundswell of grassroots anger</a> over the AI surveillance tool.</p><p><strong>Why it matters: </strong>This blowup over the country's massive network of license plate readers illustrates how rapidly AI has moved from a peripheral issue in national politics toward the center of the midterm campaign.</p><hr /><ul><li>Data centers have <a href="https://www.axios.com/2026/06/11/data-centers-ai-congress-bresnahan-bill" target="_blank">become</a> a <a href="https://www.axios.com/2026/08/19/gop-data-center-memo-ai-election" target="_blank">major</a> issue in the midterms, with candidates racing to one-up each other in their opposition to building the energy-hungry facilities.</li><li>Super PACs affiliated with AI companies have also spent tens of millions of dollars clashing with each other in congressional elections over the degree to which the federal government should regulate the technology.</li><li>Now, surveillance cameras are opening a new front in the debate over AI.</li></ul><p><strong>Driving the news: </strong>Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee for Senate in Michigan, posted a <a href="https://x.com/AbdulElSayed/status/2090093246563193113?s=20" target="_blank">video to X</a> Wednesday tying his Republican opponent, former Rep. Mike Rogers, to Flock cameras.</p><ul><li>"There's been this mass proliferation of Flock cameras, any and everywhere, watching your every move to collect information without you even noticing," El-Sayed says with the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YvAYIJSSZY" target="_blank">'80s tune</a> "Somebody's Watching Me" playing in the background.</li><li>El-Sayed accuses Rogers of supporting the practice, citing a <a href="https://www.c-span.org/clip/house-committee/user-clip-mike-rogers-view-of-privacy/4470916" target="_blank">2013 hearing</a> in which the then-House Intelligence Committee chair said: "You can't have your privacy violated if you don't know your privacy is violated, right?"</li><li>The Rogers campaign did not respond to a request for comment.</li></ul><p><strong>Catch up quick: </strong>Flock and similar companies are facing a public outcry over their AI-powered license plate reader cameras, particularly given reports of police officers <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2026/08/19/we-found-cops-who-misused-flock-their-police-departments-didnt-know/" target="_blank">misusing</a> the technology, Axios <a href="https://www.axios.com/2026/08/17/flock-camera-local-opposition-surveillance" target="_blank">reported</a>. </p><ul><li>Municipalities across the country have already moved to <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/boston/news/hopkinton-cancels-flock-camera-contract/" target="_blank">sever ties with Flock</a> — whose vast network of 120,000 cameras allows law enforcement to track the movement of vehicles<strong> </strong>—<strong> </strong>and some people have <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/security/flock-safety-vandals-say-companys-privacy-changes-arent-enough-rcna260463" target="_blank">sabotaged the cameras</a>.</li><li>The company has defended its practices and said it is improving its privacy features, telling Axios it has been "listening to customers, communities, and civil liberties groups."</li><li>Flock has also argued that the tool is being used for good, saying its cameras have aided roughly 1 million police investigations and helped find around 10,000 missing people.</li></ul><p><strong>State of play: </strong>Democratic House candidates are getting in on the Flock camera blowback. </p><ul><li>Ohio Democrat Kristina Knickerbocker said in a statement that her opponent, former House Intelligence Committee Chair <a href="https://www.axios.com/2025/01/15/mike-johnson-turner-house-intelligence-committee" target="_blank">Mike Turner</a> (R-Ohio), "pushed for more Flock cameras in downtown Dayton."</li><li>"Now those cameras have been caught running thousands of searches that broke our city's rules," she added. </li><li>Turner said in a statement to Axios: "My yellow springs socialist opponent once again shows her ignorance, since the Local Congressman has nothing to do with the number of flock cameras in Dayton, OH."</li></ul><p><strong><a href="https://www.axios.com/local/nashville/2026/04/23/house-majority-pac-spend-unseating-ogles" target="_blank">Chaz Molder</a></strong><a href="https://www.axios.com/local/nashville/2026/04/23/house-majority-pac-spend-unseating-ogles" target="_blank"></a>, the Democratic nominee in Tennessee's 5th District, said of Flock cameras: "That kind of big government overreach has no place in our country or Tennessee."</p><ul><li>"Politicians are cashing their checks while allowing their cameras to go up everywhere," said <a href="https://www.axios.com/2026/08/05/michigan-7th-district-will-lawrence-maasdam-brink" target="_blank">William Lawrence</a>, a progressive Democratic House candidate in Michigan.</li></ul><p><strong>Between the lines: </strong>Flock cameras are emerging as a rare area of bipartisan agreement on Capitol Hill, with conservatives and progressives in particular speaking out on the issue in recent weeks.</p><ul><li>A trio of House Republicans led by Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/9800/text?s=2&r=1&hl=Flock" target="_blank">introduced a bill last month</a> to prohibit the federal government from purchasing Flock cameras or similar technology.</li><li>Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) wrote in a <a href="https://x.com/SenSanders/status/2089716977442926842?s=20" target="_blank">social media post</a> Tuesday: "Flock has installed nearly 100,000 cameras across America to track your every movement. ... STOP AI MASS SURVEILLANCE. STOP FLOCK."</li></ul><p><strong>The bottom line: </strong>The Flock camera backlash is converging with the already prominent data center discourse to make AI one of the most potent issues on the campaign trail.</p><ul><li>Jake Johnson, a Democratic House candidate in Minnesota, told Axios he was not surprised to find voters chafing at Flock cameras given the intense feelings he has encountered about data centers.</li><li>"Everywhere I go I get questions about data centers," he said. "So the fact that those two are potentially linked together, I think, really, really burns people."</li></ul>
<img src="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/americans-deserve-answers-hawley-opens-flock-investigation-with-damning-new-evidence.png?id=67691146&width=1245&height=700&coordinates=0%2C0%2C1%2C0" /><br /><br /><p>Missouri Republican Senator Josh Hawley is not sympathetic to the surveillance state.</p><p>With evidence that would frighten any American, Hawley made an announcement on Wednesday that will affect thousands of U.S. neighborhoods.</p><p class="pull-quote">'The American people want to know who has access to their personal data and how.'</p><p>As license plate reading cameras spy from seemingly every corner of the United States, with some even hiding in <a href="https://www.theblaze.com/tech/traffic-cones-hidden-cameras-az" target="_self">traffic cones and barrels</a>, Senator Hawley stated on Wednesday that Americans' privacy rights do not stop when they get in their cars.</p><p>"Americans do not surrender their privacy rights when they drive to work, drop their kids off at school, or go to church," Hawley <a href="https://x.com/HawleyMO/status/2092685230465245645?s=20" target="_blank">wrote</a> on X. </p><p>With that, Hawley said he is opening an investigation into Flock, the manufacturer behind over an alleged 120,000 cameras across 49 states, a number consistent with license plate camera tracker <a href="https://maps.deflock.org/?lat=38.0443&lng=-93.1440&zoom=3.59" target="_blank">DeFlock</a>.</p><p>"Americans deserve answers," Hawley <a href="https://x.com/HawleyMO/status/2092685237599793374" target="_blank">added</a>.</p><p>In <a href="https://www.hawley.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/2026-08-26-Hawley-Letter-to-Flock-CEO.pdf" target="_blank">letter</a> to Flock CEO Garrett Langley, Hawley demanded answers surrounding Flock's safeguards for Americans' data.</p><p>Noting that the company conducts "more than 20 billion vehicle scans every month," Hawley said that "the overwhelming majority of the Americans captured in those records did nothing wrong." </p><p>Then, Hawley listed some recent horrifying examples of abuse using Flock systems.</p><p><strong>RELATED: <a href="https://www.theblaze.com/tech/arizona-surveillance-camera-polling-0826" target="_blank">This state's citizens now oppose Flock cameras — despite agreeing they help police</a></strong></p> <blockquote class="rm-embed twitter-tweet"> <a href="https://twitter.com/HawleyMO/status/2092685230465245645"></a> </blockquote> <p>Just days before Hawley sent the letter, a Missouri man was found to have <a href="https://www.kcur.org/news/2026-08-23/flock-cameras-misuse-missouri-st-charles-county-police" target="_blank">engaged</a> in "egregious misuse" of Flock's "data system" by using it for personal reasons.</p><p>Two weeks prior, prosecutors <a href="https://reason.com/2026/08/13/flock-cameras-and-license-plate-readers-are-everywhere-can-we-trust-cops-with-them/" target="_blank">charged</a> a police officer in Milwaukee for allegedly searching the Flock system for his girlfriend's license plate 124 times, along with her former boyfriend's plate 55 times. He reportedly entered "investigation" as his justification each time.</p><p>Other examples cited by Hawley included a Florida woman <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/news/us/articles/florida-woman-spent-13-days-170100471.html" target="_blank">spending 13 days in jail</a> over eight possible felony counts after she was arrested through a Flock network search.</p><p>The charges were eventually dismissed when it was concluded that she was the wrong person.</p><p>Moreover, a California police department found that Flock <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/flock-camera-misread-license-plate-reader-california-roseville-police-2026-7" target="_blank">misread license plates</a> in 71% of its issued alerts, leading to the LAPD dropping its contract with the company.</p><p><strong>RELATED: <a href="https://www.theblaze.com/shows/kibbe-on-liberty/what-the-flock-knoxville-mayor-explains-the-dark-truth-about-flock-cameras-not-your-grandmas-license-plate-readers" target="_blank">What the Flock? Knoxville mayor explains the dark truth about Flock cameras: ‘Not your grandma's license plate readers’</a></strong></p> <p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image"> <img alt="" class="rm-shortcode" id="d770e" src="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/image.jpg?id=67686328&width=1245&height=700&quality=50&coordinates=0%2C53%2C0%2C53" /> <small class="image-media media-photo-credit">Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg/Getty Images</small></p> <p>Senator Hawley also said there was "uncertainty" around whether or not Flock can sell or use customer data. </p><p>"Flock's $8.3 billion valuation comes with enormous pressure to find new commercial applications. Americans demand a full accounting for how their driver data is stored or sold."</p><p>Hawley also said, "These camera networks harness artificial intelligence to pool what they capture into a national database that customers can search."</p><p>"The American people want to know who has access to their personal data and how. This investigation will seek those answers," the letter concluded.</p><p>As Blaze Media previously reported, there are also growing concerns about how the license plate readers can be enhanced to to capture any "unique signals" emitted from devices in cars.</p><p>The <a href="https://www.theblaze.com/tech/digital-id-license-plate-tracking">SignalTrace</a> upgrade captures unique identifiers from cell phones, smart watches, Bluetooth devices, earbuds, and Wi-Fi signals and ultimately gives the ability to create a dossier on the driver and all his smart devices.</p><p><em>Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. </em><em><a href="https://www.theblaze.com/newsletters/theblaze-articlelink" target="_self">Sign up here</a></em><em>!</em></p>
<img src="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/cities-are-kicking-out-flock-the-surveillance-might-be-here-to-stay.jpg?id=67686532&width=1245&height=700&coordinates=28%2C0%2C28%2C0" /><br /><br /><p>Flock Safety spent years selling license plate cameras faster than local officials could ask questions. Now cities are shutting them off. On Wednesday, <a href="https://www.azfamily.com/2026/08/26/tempe-turns-off-flock-cameras-ends-contract-with-company/" target="_blank">Tempe, Arizona, shut off all 33 of its Flock license plate readers and announced that it would end its contract</a>. The city won't hire another company to replace them.</p><p>That wasn't always the plan. On March 26, the Tempe City Council <a href="https://tempe.granicus.com/GeneratedAgendaViewer.php?clip_id=4004&view_id=4" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">approved a trial of Axon's Outpost plate readers</a>. The free, 60-day pilot included three fixed cameras and was <a href="https://www.abc15.com/news/local-news/investigations/tempe-tests-axon-license-plate-readers-amid-flock-backlash" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">described at the time as a test of an alternative to Flock</a>. Wednesday's announcement went further. Councilman Bobby Nichols said Tempe needed to "stop looking for other ALPR providers."</p><p class="pull-quote">'These cameras need to be deactivated immediately.'</p><p>So Tempe isn't merely changing the logo on the pole. At least for now, it's walking away from fixed plate readers altogether.</p><p>Tempe Mayor Corey Woods (D) acknowledged that the cameras helped police but said the potential for abuse was too great. "For Tempe, that means taking these cameras down," Woods said.</p><p>That same day, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) <a href="https://www.hawley.senate.gov/chairman-hawley-investigates-ai-powered-flock-cameras-amidst-privacy-concerns/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">launched a Senate investigation into Flock</a>, demanding records from CEO Garrett Langley about data access, camera placement, retention, and sharing. Hawley gave the company until September 8 to respond.</p><p>"Americans do not surrender their privacy rights when they drive to work, drop their kids off at school, or go to church," Hawley wrote.</p><p>Hawley wasn't alone. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) <a href="https://x.com/SenSanders/status/2092667322695635447" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">said the same day that he would soon introduce legislation</a> to "stop Flock and AI mass surveillance." Sanders warned that the network was pushing the country toward a surveillance state run for the profit of "AI oligarchs."</p><p>Flock sold local police departments roadside cameras and connected them to a nationwide system capable of reconstructing where ordinary Americans drive. Most of the people entered into that system aren't suspects. They're going to work, church, school, the gun store, the doctor, or wherever else free people go without asking the government for permission.</p><h2>Knox County may be next</h2><p>In Tennessee, the Knox County Sheriff's Office has operated Flock cameras since 2020 and now has 143 of them, according to <a href="https://www.aol.com/articles/exasperated-knox-county-commissioners-demand-090955000.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">reporting by the Knoxville News Sentinel</a>. The department planned to install another 270 with state grant money.</p><p>County officials then started asking basic questions. Is there a valid contract? Who approved it? Where are the cameras? Who can search the data?</p><p>Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs (R) says the original agreement expired in 2024 and that there's no valid service contract governing the current cameras. Records reviewed by county officials also showed the sheriff's office repeatedly purchasing Flock equipment in batches priced just below the threshold that would have triggered mayoral review.</p><p><strong>RELATED: <a href="https://www.theblaze.com/columns/opinion/when-did-we-agree-to-be-watched" target="_blank">When did we agree to be watched?</a></strong></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image"> <img alt="" class="rm-shortcode" id="92306" src="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/image.jpg?id=67615083&width=980" /> <small class="image-media media-photo-credit"> Justin Sullivan/Getty Images </small> </p><p>"These cameras need to be deactivated immediately," Commissioner Kim Frazier said during an August 24 meeting. "You don't have an active agreement."</p><p>Jacobs has <a href="https://www.wvlt.tv/2026/08/25/knox-county-mayor-disputes-validity-flock-camera-contract/" target="_blank">told Flock that the county will not renew the deal even if the company maintains that it is valid</a>. Existing cameras remain active for now, but installation of new ones has stopped. The County Commission is scheduled to vote August 31 on an ordinance regulating the cameras. A proposed amendment would <a href="https://commission.knoxcountytn.gov/forums/topic/amendment-to-o-26-8-102/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">order Flock's equipment removed within 30 days</a>, though its sponsor says final passage would require a second reading in September.</p><p>Knox County hasn't pulled the plug. Yet. But the county installed 143 cameras before commissioners could get straight answers about whether the contract was valid, where the cameras had been placed, or who inside the sheriff's office controlled them. That should bother even people who like the cameras.</p><h2>The cancellations are piling up</h2><p>By mid-August, the Associated Press reported that <a href="https://apnews.com/article/2a93bc075e2f7ffcca9e04a35d75a3fe" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">more than 50 agencies or jurisdictions had canceled, suspended, rejected, or deactivated a Flock system since the beginning of the year</a>, according to a tracker maintained by the anti-Flock group <a href="https://deflock.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">DeFlock</a>.</p><p>The day before Tempe's announcement, the <a href="https://www.foxcarolina.com/2026/08/26/asheville-city-council-votes-terminate-contract-with-flock-safety/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Asheville City Council voted 5-2 to terminate its Flock contract</a>, remove the hardware, and stop employees from accessing or sharing the data.</p><p>In Missouri, the <a href="https://www.sccmo.org/m/newsflash/home/detail/2771" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">St. Charles County Police Department discontinued Flock and began terminating its contract</a> after an audit found that a civilian employee had searched the system for a personal, non-law-enforcement purpose. The employee resigned after receiving notice of termination.</p><p>Arizona has become a particularly bad market for the company:</p><ul><li><a href="https://www.azfamily.com/2026/08/07/chandler-ends-use-flock-license-plate-readers-after-audit-finds-anomaly/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Chandler ended its Flock partnership</a> after an audit found an unexplained anomaly in how an employee used the system.</li><li><a href="https://www.kjzz.org/politics/2026-08-26/flock-cameras-in-arizona-tempe-wont-replace-system-cave-creek-cancels-contract" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Cave Creek terminated its contract and removed its cameras</a> after officials concluded that local privacy rules could not control a system designed for data sharing between agencies.</li><li>Pinal County Sheriff Ross Teeple said <a href="https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/video/2026/08/06/why-pinal-county-is-ending-its-flock-camera-contract/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">the county won't renew its contract</a> when it expires in September because he has "serious Fourth Amendment concerns" about the technology.</li></ul><p>The <a href="https://ebs.publicnow.com/view/EAE188D566379226C17BB258B927F33159F4FE7A" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Josephine County Sheriff's Office in Oregon canceled its contract and deactivated 10 cameras</a> after residents objected on Fourth Amendment grounds. The sheriff's office said the technology had helped solve crimes but conceded that much of the county was not willing to accept it.</p><p>In Massachusetts, <a href="https://www.salemma.gov/m/newsflash/Home/Detail/427" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Salem declined to renew its contract</a>, citing insufficient protections for locally generated data. Salem plans to replace Flock with a system that keeps the data under local control, which is an improvement but hardly the end of automated plate tracking.</p><p>Stoughton, Wisconsin, shut the whole thing down. Its council <a href="https://www.wmtv15news.com/video/2026/07/29/stoughton-ends-agreement-with-flock-safety/?outputType=amp" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">unanimously terminated a two-year contract only months after the cameras were installed</a>. <a href="https://deflockdane.org/stoughton-alpr/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The resolution called for</a> shutting down and removing the cameras, deleting collected data, and barring the city from buying a replacement without a new public oversight process.</p><p><strong>RELATED: <a href="https://www.theblaze.com/news/flock-camera-student-comments-online" target="_blank">Student accused of destroying Flock cameras — his community comes out to defend him</a></strong></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image"> <img alt="" class="rm-shortcode" id="31058" src="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/image.jpg?id=67582785&width=980" /> <small class="image-media media-photo-credit"> L-R: Monongalia County Sheriff's Office press release; Justin Sullivan/Getty Images </small> </p><p><a href="https://www.redmond.gov/2400/Automated-License-Plate-Reader-Program" target="_blank">Redmond, Washington, canceled its contract in a unanimous July vote and ended the city's plate-reader program</a> after deactivating the cameras months earlier. The <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-07-11/lapd-suspends-use-of-flock-surveillance-cameras-over-privacy-issues" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">LAPD stopped using Flock when its agreement expired</a>, pending stronger terms for data ownership, privacy, security, and sharing. Officials left open the possibility of a new contract. <a href="https://www.axios.com/local/denver/2026/04/01/axon-license-plate-reader-contract-approved" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Denver</a> and <a href="https://www.axios.com/local/douglas/2026/07/23/douglas-county-sheriff-drops-flock-for-axon" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Colorado's Douglas County</a> are replacing Flock with Axon.</p><h2>Flock's loss may be Axon's gain</h2><p>Axon has noticed the opportunity. CEO Rick Smith told investors that the company was seeing <a href="https://www.opb.org/article/2026/08/22/flock-competitors-seek-to-benefit-from-public-backlash/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">"a significant number of agencies" switch from other plate-reader systems to Axon</a>. While Knox County is debating getting rid of its 143 Flock cameras, in January, the Knoxville City Council approved a <a href="https://www.knoxvilletn.gov/news/2026/k_p_d_now_fully_staffed" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">$9.4 million expansion of the police department's Axon contract</a>. The package included plate readers along with additional body cameras, in-car cameras, and drones. The Knoxville Police Department now says it operates <a href="https://knoxvilletnpolice.gov/real-time-information-center/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">19 fixed Axon plate readers and 30 mobile readers built into police dashcams</a>. It keeps plate data for 30 days. Searches must be tied to an incident report number and are logged for auditing.</p><p>Those controls are better than a free-for-all. They don't make the cameras stop recording innocent drivers.</p><p>Axon's fixed Outpost cameras combine <a href="https://www.axon.com/products/axon-outpost" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">plate reading, vehicle identification, and live video</a>. In July, the company also began rolling out <a href="https://www.axon.com/help/fusus/software/fusus/alpr/alpr-sharing.htm" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">cross-agency ALPR sharing</a>. Axon's version isn't identical to Flock's national network. Sharing is off by default, initiated by the agency that owns the data, and subject to offense categories and audit logs. But an agency can still let another department search its plate records.</p><h2>Flock built the network first and the guardrails later</h2><p>Flock now says it operates more than 120,000 cameras across roughly 6,000 communities. Together, they produce about 20 billion vehicle scans every month.</p><p>A <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2026/08/02/how-police-officers-used-vast-network-cameras-spy-their-exes/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Washington Post investigation</a> found at least 50 officers who had been charged with or accused of misusing automated plate-reader systems, often to track current or former romantic partners.</p><p>One former Georgia police chief allegedly searched for his ex-girlfriend and her teenage daughter roughly 600 times. In Wisconsin, an officer allegedly searched plates connected to his ex-girlfriend and her partner 179 times, including checking whether she had visited an abortion clinic.</p><p>Flock's CEO has said human misuse is inevitable and that the company's job is to provide tools that catch it. In August, the company announced new safeguards that will make several previously optional controls mandatory by January 1. Law-enforcement customers will have to tie searches to case numbers, use software intended to flag abnormal search behavior, and review emergency overrides. Flock also shortened its standard retention period from 30 days to seven, though <a href="https://www.flocksafety.com/blog/how-does-flock-handle-license-plate-data-deletion" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">customers may configure it differently under their own laws and policies</a>. The <a href="https://apnews.com/article/2a93bc075e2f7ffcca9e04a35d75a3fe" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Associated Press has a useful summary of the changes</a>.</p><p>Any check on abuse is better than none. But Flock added these rules only after its network was recording billions of vehicle movements every month. Local officials were sold a crime-fighting tool. What they got was access to a national location-search system. Its limits depended on company policy and department rules, plus the honesty of every employee handed a login.</p><p>There isn't a clean partisan story here. Hawley and Sanders agree on very little, but both are now calling for federal action against Flock. Asheville, Tempe, and county sheriffs in Arizona and Oregon have reached similar conclusions for different reasons. A government camera network that records everyone by default and sorts out abuse afterward has the presumption backward.</p><p>Most of these towns never had a real debate until the cameras were already watching them. They should have.</p>
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This story appeared in Today, Explained, a daily newsletter that helps you understand the most compelling news and stories of the day. Subscribe here. I passed five Flock cameras on my drive to work today, entirely without realizing it. The AI-powered license plate readers have metastasized on light poles and roadside posts across the country over the past […]