Senators Bernie Sanders and Jeff Merkley, along with Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, have introduced legislation targeting Flock Safety’s sprawling network of license plate reader cameras.
The bill, called the Ban Flock Act, would prohibit federal agencies from using or accessing data collected by automated license plate readers across the country.
The legislation would also block federal grants from flowing to any state or local government that continues to operate the technology.
Flock runs a nationwide network of roughly 120,000 cameras that capture license plates, vehicle characteristics, and the time and location of each image captured.
“We cannot allow America to become a surveillance state where AI oligarchs profit by giving the government the power to track our every movement,” Sanders said in a statement accompanying the bill’s introduction.
Ocasio-Cortez was equally direct, saying, “Big Tech companies like Flock Safety have built a mass surveillance system to harvest Americans’ private and personal data without their consent.”
“I’m proud to introduce the Ban Flock Act with Sen. Sanders to enforce our constitutional right to privacy,” Ocasio-Cortez added.
The proposal arrives as Flock faces mounting scrutiny over how law enforcement agencies across the country have used its technology in practice.
A Washington Post investigation found dozens of police officers had misused Flock cameras to track romantic partners and other individuals for unauthorized purposes.
The Democrats’ bill is one of several anti-Flock proposals that have emerged in recent weeks, reflecting a rare area of bipartisan political agreement in Congress.
Republican Representatives Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Eric Burlison of Missouri introduced the Flock-Off Act, which would ban federal funding for Flock cameras and require federally funded systems to be removed entirely.
That bill would also require state and local governments receiving federal funds to stop operating Flock systems within 180 days of enactment.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) introduced separate legislation called the Stop Flock Abuse Act, which would tighten rules on how data collected by the cameras can be stored, secured, and searched.
The growing backlash against AI-powered license plate readers, which allow police to track individuals over time, is increasingly becoming a political issue heading into the midterm elections in states including Florida, Ohio, and Wisconsin.
