{"id":2650106,"date":"2026-08-26T17:17:01","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T21:17:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/hawley-opens-investigation-into-flock-cameras\/"},"modified":"2026-08-26T17:21:44","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T21:21:44","slug":"hawley-opens-investigation-into-flock-cameras","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/hawley-opens-investigation-into-flock-cameras\/","title":{"rendered":"Hawley opens investigation into Flock cameras"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">12<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fhawley-opens-investigation-into-flock-cameras%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2650106&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) sent a letter to Flock Safety CEO Garrett Langley raising concerns about teh company&#8217;s extensive surveillance network, which includes over 120,000 cameras across 49 states. Hawley scrutinized the use of AI-powered license plate readers that help law enforcement track vehicles, highlighting issues such as misuse for stalking, inaccuracies leading to wrongful arrests, and the lack of safeguards protecting citizens&#8217; privacy. He expressed particular worry about the potential sale or misuse of collected data beyond law enforcement purposes, noting that the majority of individuals captured are innocent. Hawley announced an inquiry into Flock\u2019s data collection,retention,and sharing policies,emphasizing the importance of balancing crime reduction with privacy rights. Flock stated it does not sell data and is working with Hawley to address his questions regarding their policies and safeguards. Hawley concluded by stressing that legislative authorization is lacking and internal policies should be the primary protections for Americans\u2019 privacy.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<article class=\"fn-body\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sen. <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/josh-hawley\/\" data-type=\"post_tag\" data-id=\"914\">Josh Hawley<\/a> (R-MO) on Wednesday sent a letter to <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/in_focus\/4662831\/communities-fear-flock-cameras-safety-promise-trojan-horse-mass-surveillance\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/in_focus\/4662831\/communities-fear-flock-cameras-safety-promise-trojan-horse-mass-surveillance\/\">Flock Safety<\/a> CEO Garrett Langley, raising concerns about the company\u2019s \u201cunprecedented national surveillance network.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hawley\u2019s letter comes as Flock faces national pushback over its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/illinois-sued-over-proliferation-of-license-plate-reading-cameras\/\" title=\"Legal action against Illinois for excessive use of license plate reader cameras\">automatic license plate readers<\/a>, powered by <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/artificial-intelligence\/\" data-type=\"post_tag\" data-id=\"1658\">artificial intelligence<\/a>, that allow police to better track cars that have been stolen or used in <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/crime\/\" data-type=\"post_tag\" data-id=\"8761\">crimes<\/a>. Flock <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/crime\/4686592\/flock-ceo-outlines-policy-changes-after-uproar-over-surveillance-network\/\">currently has<\/a> over 120,000 cameras active across 49 states and has struck deals with thousands of municipalities. <\/p>\n<section class=\"explore-more-section\" id=\"wex-recommended-widget\">\n<div class=\"magazine-container single\">\n<h1 class=\"magazine-title mt-2\">Recommended Stories<\/h1>\n<p>             <i class=\"fa-solid fa-play icon\"><\/i>         <\/div>\n<div class=\"explore-grid\">\n<div class=\"explore-card\">                         <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/senate\/4701630\/josh-hawley-investigation-flock-cameras\/?itm_source=parsely-api\">                             <\/p>\n<div class=\"explore-thumb-wrap\">                                                                                                                                  <\/div>\n<h3>Hawley opens investigation into \u2018unprecedented\u2019 scale of Flock surveillance<\/h3>\n<p>                         <\/a>                     <\/div>\n<div class=\"explore-card\">                         <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/senate\/4699684\/ted-cruz-suggests-post-trump-gop-realignment\/?itm_source=parsely-api\">                             <\/p>\n<div class=\"explore-thumb-wrap\">                                                                                                                                  <\/div>\n<h3>Ted Cruz suggests GOP realignment coming after Trump leaves office<\/h3>\n<p>                         <\/a>                     <\/div>\n<div class=\"explore-card\">                         <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/senate\/4694972\/republican-senator-hold-trump-nominee-wetland\/?itm_source=parsely-api\">                             <\/p>\n<div class=\"explore-thumb-wrap\">                                                                                                                                  <\/div>\n<h3>Republican senator puts hold over all future Trump nominees over Biden-era wetlands policy<\/h3>\n<p>                         <\/a>                     <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In his capacity as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism, Hawley said he would be opening an investigation into Flock\u2019s \u201ccollection, retention, and dissemination of the data generated by its artificial intelligence cameras\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"wex-inarticle-ad wex-inarticle-ad-art-dsk-inart-1\">\n<div class=\"wex-ad-wrap wex-ad-art-dsk-inart-1\" style=\"min-height:90px\"><span class=\"wex-ad-label\" hidden>Advertisement<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-3182201-15\" data-wex-ad=\"art-dsk-inart-1\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-paywall\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe overwhelming majority of the Americans captured in those records did nothing wrong,\u201d Hawley said in the letter. \u201cInstead 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hawley particularly raised concerns about police officers\u2019 misuse of Flock cameras to stalk former partners, saying the incidents \u201creveal the woeful lack of safeguards in these systems.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hawley cited an incident at the St. Charles County Police Department in Missouri in which a civilian employee at the agency had run searches for personal reasons, as well as reports of a Milwaukee police officer searching his partner\u2019s license plate over 100 times. Additionally, he noted there have been several instances of vehicles being inaccurately connected to crimes, resulting in the arrest of the wrong person.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wex-inarticle-ad wex-inarticle-ad-art-dsk-inart-2\">\n<div class=\"wex-ad-wrap wex-ad-art-dsk-inart-2\" style=\"min-height:90px\"><span class=\"wex-ad-label\" hidden>Advertisement<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-3182201-16\" data-wex-ad=\"art-dsk-inart-2\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Flock\u2019s ALPRs capture images of every vehicle that drives by, regardless of whether the car is the subject of a police investigation. Langley earlier this month announced several changes to the company\u2019s systems, including tightening the retention period to seven days and requiring a search to be tied to a case number.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Another area of concern for Hawley was what happens to the data after it\u2019s collected, a particular area of concern for privacy advocates and anti-Flock groups.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cOnce cameras collect driver data, uncertainty abounds in how your company and its customers can sell or use data. Flock\u2019s $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,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wex-inarticle-ad wex-inarticle-ad-art-dsk-inart-3\">\n<div class=\"wex-ad-wrap wex-ad-art-dsk-inart-3\" style=\"min-height:90px\"><span class=\"wex-ad-label\" hidden>Advertisement<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-3182201-17\" data-wex-ad=\"art-dsk-inart-3\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Flock has previously said it does not sell data, and the data collected is owned by police departments contracted with the company. Flock spokesman Paris Lewbel told the <em>Washington Examiner<\/em> that the company had received Hawley\u2019s letter and is looking forward to \u201cthe opportunity to provide the Subcommittee with additional information.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe will be responding directly to the questions raised and 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,\u201d Lewbel said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At the end of his letter, Hawley clarified that he wants law enforcement to have the tools to reduce crime, but emphasized that it should not come at the cost of people\u2019s privacy.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wex-inarticle-ad wex-inarticle-ad-art-dsk-inart-4\">\n<div class=\"wex-ad-wrap wex-ad-art-dsk-inart-4\" style=\"min-height:90px\"><span class=\"wex-ad-label\" hidden>Advertisement<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-3182201-25\" data-wex-ad=\"art-dsk-inart-4\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/crime\/4686592\/flock-ceo-outlines-policy-changes-after-uproar-over-surveillance-network\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/crime\/4686592\/flock-ceo-outlines-policy-changes-after-uproar-over-surveillance-network\/\">FLOCK CEO OUTLINES POLICY CHANGES AFTER UPROAR OVER \u2018SURVEILLANCE\u2019 NETWORK<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cCongress never authorized the network your industry has built. Your company\u2019s internal policies are, in practice, the only safeguards for hundreds of millions of Americans,\u201d Hawley said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hawley asked Flock to respond by Sept. 8 to his questions and provide documents detailing the company\u2019s policies for several areas, including data retention, camera accuracy, and who can access the data collected.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wex-inarticle-ad wex-inarticle-ad-art-dsk-inart-5\">\n<div class=\"wex-ad-wrap wex-ad-art-dsk-inart-5\" style=\"min-height:90px\"><span class=\"wex-ad-label\" hidden>Advertisement<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-3182201-26\" data-wex-ad=\"art-dsk-inart-5\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hawley questions Flock&#8217;s AI license plate tracking system<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4130,"featured_media":2650107,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP26225489679172.jpg?w=696","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[82953,50817,3976,51050],"class_list":["post-2650106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-flock-cameras","tag-hawley-2","tag-investigation","tag-law-enforcement-2"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP26225489679172.jpg?w=696","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2650106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4130"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2650106"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2650106\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2650111,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2650106\/revisions\/2650111"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2650107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2650106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2650106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2650106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}