Flock Exposed - The Senate Takes Notice
For most of the last several years, the argument over license plate reader networks has been fought town by town, in council chambers and at public comment microphones. As of September 2026, it has reached the United States Senate. This page tracks that federal scrutiny as it develops.
A Senate Subcommittee Calls the Companies In
United States Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri invited the chief executives of four surveillance companies, including Flock Safety, to testify before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism, which he chairs. The hearing is set for September 23, 2026.
Source: Office of United States Senator Josh Hawley, "Chairman Hawley Invites CEOs of Flock, Competitors to Testify Next Week"
According to Senator Hawley, Flock operates more than 120,000 automated license plate reader cameras across 49 states. His stated concerns center on the scope of the location data collected and on how that data is shared across the network.
Source: Legis1, "Senate Panel Will Examine Flock Surveillance, Privacy," citing Senator Hawley
Roll Call reported on September 18, 2026 that Flock cameras are under new scrutiny in the Senate as the privacy backlash against the technology grows.
Source: Roll Call, September 18, 2026, "Flock cameras controversy set for Senate hearing," by Allison Mollenkamp
Coverage of the Senate inquiry has framed the questions before the subcommittee as mass surveillance risk, mission creep, and whether federal privacy regulation is needed for this category of technology at all.
Source: News-Articles.net, September 17, 2026, "Flock Safety: The Shift Toward Mass Surveillance"
Why a Federal Hearing Matters Locally
A Senate hearing does not by itself remove a single camera from a single pole. What it does is put company executives on the record, under oath, on questions that town boards have been asking their vendor representatives for two years without clear answers: who can search the data, how far it travels, how long it is kept, and what the system is actually capable of doing.
Source: Analysis of the hearing scope as described in the Roll Call and Legis1 reporting cited above
Testimony given to Congress becomes a public record that any resident can quote back to their own town board. If a company tells a Senate subcommittee that a capability does not exist or that a safeguard is in place, that statement is available to every community weighing a contract, and it is far harder to walk back than a sales presentation given in a council chamber.
Source: Analysis of the hearing scope as described in the Roll Call and Legis1 reporting cited above
Questions to Ask Your Town
Has anyone on our board or in our police department reviewed what the company told the Senate subcommittee, and does it match what we were told when the cameras were sold to us?
If federal testimony contradicts a claim made to our town during the sales process, what is our recourse under the contract we signed?
Are we willing to wait for federal rules before expanding our camera count, or are we adding cameras while the ground is still shifting?
This page will be updated as more factual sources become available.