US Senate LIVE: “Who Is Watching?” Senate Grills Flock Over Nationwide Camera Surveillance
The short version: Hindustan Times streamed a Senate hearing pressing Flock Safety on its nationwide ALPR network, a rare moment of federal scrutiny on a system that's expanded with almost none.
Our Take
Credit to Hindustan Times for carrying this hearing live, because moments like this almost never happen. Flock Safety's cameras have spread to thousands of towns and cities with no federal law requiring it, no national standard for how long plate scans are kept, and no uniform rule on who gets to search that data. When senators start asking "who is watching," it's a sign that the scale of this network has finally outgrown the patchwork of local contracts and quiet city council votes that built it.
We'd caution readers not to expect a single hearing to produce real guardrails. Congress has held tech hearings before that generated headlines and little else. The real test is whether this leads to actual legislation on retention limits, audit trails, and restrictions on sharing plate data across jurisdictions and with federal agencies like ICE — something local communities have been fighting for one policy at a time, often without any help from Washington.
Until that happens, the burden stays on residents to know what's watching them. Check our camera map to see what's already been documented near you, and visit our take-action page if you want to push your own city council before the next camera goes up.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of Hindustan Times, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.