FBI Director Kash Patel defended Flock Safety cameras during a Senate hearing, saying the FBI
The short version: FBI Director Kash Patel told the Senate the Bureau taps Flock Safety's ALPR network, confirming federal access to a system most drivers never agreed to.
Our Take
When the head of the FBI has to defend a private company's camera network on the Senate floor, that tells you how deeply Flock Safety has embedded itself in American policing. Credit to the channel flockblocked for surfacing this clip — Kash Patel's testimony confirms what we've been saying for months: this isn't just a local speed-trap tool, it's a de facto federal surveillance backbone, built by a private vendor and handed over to agencies with far less oversight than a warrant would require.
The phrase "on a case-by-case basis" should not comfort anyone. There's no public audit trail showing how often the FBI queries this data, what triggers a search, or how long those records are retained once they leave local police hands. Flock's pitch has always been that local departments own their data — but if the FBI can casually access a nationwide patchwork of ALPR feeds during a Senate hearing, the "local control" argument is already dead on arrival.
This is exactly why mapping where these cameras live matters. Check our camera map to see what's watching your daily commute, and if you want to push back on unchecked ALPR expansion in your town, head to our take-action page for tools to raise it with your local council.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of flockblocked, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.