Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), chair of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism, has launched an investigation into Flock Safety's national surveillance network, demanding to know who has access to Americans' personal data captured by the company's cameras.
In a letter to Flock CEO Garrett Langley, Hawley wrote that the company has "assembled an unprecedented national surveillance network" of more than 120,000 cameras across 49 states conducting 20 billion vehicle scans every month. The senator called for all relevant documents and information no later than Sept. 8.
What the Right Is Saying
Conservative defenders of Flock's technology argue that license plate readers are a valuable crime-fighting tool that helps police locate stolen vehicles, identify suspects in hit-and-run incidents, and recover abducted children. They contend that the system is no different from traditional surveillance methods used for decades.
Some Republican privacy advocates echo Hawley's concerns about corporate overreach while maintaining that law enforcement should retain access to tools that help keep communities safe. They call for targeted reforms rather than outright bans on the technology.
Others in the party emphasize that this is a state and local matter, arguing that federal mandates on police departments using Flock cameras would amount to overreach by Congress into matters traditionally handled at the local level.
What the Left Is Saying
Privacy advocates and progressive Democrats have long raised concerns about the expansion of automated license plate reader networks. They argue that Americans should not be tracked continuously as they go about their daily lives without robust safeguards against misuse.
Civil liberties organizations note that while law enforcement tools can serve legitimate purposes, pooling vehicle data into searchable national databases raises serious Fourth Amendment questions. They point to Hawley's own findings as evidence that self-regulation has failed to protect citizens from abuse.
Democratic lawmakers have increasingly called for federal privacy legislation that would establish clear limits on how long surveillance data can be retained and who can access it. Some have proposed requiring warrants before law enforcement agencies can search such databases.
What the Numbers Show
According to data cited in Hawley's letter, Flock Safety operates more than 120,000 cameras across 49 states. The company processes approximately 20 billion vehicle scans monthly, creating what Hawley described as a "national database that customers can search."
The company's valuation stands at $8.3 billion, which Hawley said creates "enormous pressure to find new commercial applications" for the collected data.
In one case cited by Hawley, a California police department found that 71 percent of its Flock alerts were wrong. The Los Angeles Police Department terminated its contract after an audit showed officers had incorrectly stopped 161 vehicles flagged as stolen through the system.
In Milwaukee, prosecutors charged a police officer who allegedly searched his girlfriend's license plate number 124 times and her former boyfriend's plate 55 times using Flock's database. That officer was only caught after one of the individuals checked their own plates on haveibeenflocked.com and discovered repeated searches.
The Bottom Line
Hawley's investigation represents a rare bipartisan concern about the rapid expansion of automated surveillance technology without corresponding federal regulations. The senator has asked Flock to detail who has access to its database, how long data is retained, and what safeguards exist against misuse.
The company has until Sept. 8 to respond with documents. How Flock responds—and whether Congress moves toward legislation—will likely set the stage for broader debates about privacy rights in an era of AI-powered surveillance. The investigation could also influence pending state-level proposals to regulate license plate readers.