'A nightmare for individual liberties' — Josh Hawley unveils sweeping new anti-Flock legislation
If one lawmaker has his way, new rules are coming that will change the way Flock Safety and other automated license plate reader companies will run their companies.With data and accountability at the forefront, tech companies could face much stricter parameters on what they can do with their recordings.'A nightmare for individual liberties.'Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley says he is set to introduce the Stop Flock Abuse Act, and while the proposed legislation mentions Flock Safety by name, it would apply to other AI-powered surveillance agencies as well.Hawley put forth seven key pillars that such companies will be directed to follow should his act become law.This included restrictions on data, like a requirement to delete driver information after 10 days, except for active criminal investigations. The data must be encrypted, never leave the United States, and cannot be sold or shared with nongovernment third parties.ALPR networks would not be allowed to use facial recognition with their technology either.Furthermore, agencies would be required to log who has conducted a search, the reason for it, who approved it, and what exactly was viewed. The logs must be routinely audited.The goal is to prevent search abuse and require a paper trail for every search that is conducted.AI-powered cameras produced by Flock and its competitors are tracking and creating digital footprints of everyday Americans — a nightmare for individual liberties unless Congress enacts meaningful rules and accountability, Hawley said at the press release. That's why I'm introducing the Stop Flock Abuse Act to establish basic safeguards for AI-powered cameras and protect Americans' fundamental constitutional rights. Law-abiding Americans should not be treated like criminals.Weeks earlier though, Flock chief legal officer Dan Haley ensured the senator that the company respects and protects civil liberties.RELATED: Flock offers to pay employees to leave — and the backlash gets hotter Flock is a safety technology platform that helps communities take a proactive approach to public safety and crime prevention, while respecting and protecting core civil liberties, Haley wrote in a letter. We are proud that our hardware and software suite supports cities, law enforcement, businesses, schools, and neighborhoods with tools for public safety and investigations.Haley added that the company sees a positive impact on public safety every single day, including in Hawley's state of Missouri. However, Flock expressed that it welcomed clear, sensible legislation that would apply to all vendors and not depend on the good judgment of just one.Flock also said it was committed to strengthening its ability to detect misuse of its technology, but admitted in the letter that it does not keep track of instances of misuse.When asked to provide the confirmed instances of misuse of Flock systems, the company wrote that the underlying search records are owned and controlled by each customer agency.Flock does not maintain a single consolidated count of confirmed customer misuse, the answer added.RELATED: Welcome to the new traffic stop, where it's your word against AI's In terms of data retention, Flock said it had recently lowered its recommended retention period from 30 to seven days for new law-enforcement customers. However, this is just a suggestion as customers own and control the data the cameras capture; a customer can retain data in Flock's system for a maximum of one year.For its search function, Flock revealed that until December 2025, there were no standardized reasons a user had to enter for a search, leaving it as a free-text field, which, in some cases, resulted in non-specific documentation.Vandals recently got a hold of a Flock camera and described it as having the processing of a midrange smartphone with around 20 built-in apps for motion detection, taking pictures, uploading data, and receiving updates.The cameras had limited space and struggled with storage, but no facial recognition software was found.According to ALPR tracking website DeFlock, Flock Safety operates 81% of the active 142,000+ surveillance cameras in the United States.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
Senator Josh Hawley is introducing the Stop Flock Abuse Act to regulate companies like Flock Safety that use AI-powered surveillance cameras. The proposed legislation includes stricter parameters on data retention, encryption, and sharing, as well as prohibiting facial recognition technology. It also mandates detailed logging and auditing of all searches to prevent abuse and ensure accountability.
- Senator Josh Hawley is introducing the ‘Stop Flock Abuse Act’ to regulate automated license plate reader (ALPR) companies.
- The act proposes restrictions on data, including deletion after 10 days (except for criminal investigations), encryption, and prohibiting sales to third parties.
- ALPR networks would be barred from using facial recognition technology.
- Agencies using these systems would be required to log all searches, including the reason, approver, and viewed data, with mandatory routine audits.
- Flock Safety states it respects civil liberties and supports sensible legislation, but notes that search records are owned by customer agencies, and it does not track misuse instances.
- Flock recently suggested lowering data retention to seven days, but customers can retain data for up to one year.
- Previously, search reasons were free-text, leading to non-specific documentation.
- Flock Safety operates 81% of active surveillance cameras in the U.S.
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