GOP lawmaker issues bill to rein in AI surveillance camera abuses

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(The Center Square) – With Americans questioning the hundreds of thousands of AI-enhanced surveillance cameras across the country, one Republican lawmaker is introducing legislation to curb the worst abuses of the technology.

The Stop Flock Abuse Act, which Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., announced he will release, targets the policies of Automated License Plate Reader camera providers like Flock Safety, Axon Enterprise, and Motorola Solutions.

Critics of the rapid rollout of ALPR cameras say Congress and regulatory agencies haven't kept up with the rapid advancement of AI technology over the past decade. This failure has enabled private companies to undertake activities that they argue would likely violate the Constitution if committed by the federal government.

“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 in a statement.

“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.”

Among other measures, the bill forbids local governments from selling or sharing data to non-governmental third parties, requires agencies to impose a written approval process to log each search, and mandates regular audits of those logs.

The latter requirements are meant to prevent further “rogue” searches, documented cases of police officers and other Flock clients using databases to stalk and harass individuals.

Currently, Flock “does not maintain a single consolidated count of confirmed customer misuse,” according to the company’s recent letter to Hawley.

Flock currently allows clients to store data for as long as they choose. The Stop Flock Abuse Act would compel agencies to permanently delete driver data after ten days unless the data is vital to an active criminal investigation.

The bill would also prohibit ALPR networks from using facial recognition technology. Flock already allows users to search for people in images taken by its non-license plate reader cameras, although the searches “must be related to elements visible in footage, such as shirt color, glasses, etc., not a biometric template.”

However, Flock hasn’t ruled out incorporating biometric data technology in the future. Notably, the company has applied for a patent that would permit the tracking of individuals and allow searches of individual persons in its database.

As of September 2026, at least 138,000 cameras with ALPR technology have been mapped across the U.S. by independent organizations like Finding Flock. About 120,000 of those cameras belong to Flock.

Flock Safety did not respond to The Center Square’s request for comment on whether it supported the Stop Flock Abuse Act.

Flock updated its privacy, accountability and other safeguards in August, according to a post from the company.

"These changes reflect years of work and deliberation," the company said in the post. "They are not the end of that work, but simply the continuation of our commitment to both safety and privacy. We are not perfect, so we will keep listening, improving, and building a better standard for public safety technology together."