Congressman Greg Steube says of his Flock camera bill, "There's this thing called the 4th amendment"

Our Take

When a sitting member of Congress goes on camera and says "there's this thing called the 4th Amendment" about license plate reader cameras, it's worth paying attention — not because the line is clever, but because it signals that concern over Flock Safety's camera network is no longer a fringe, one-party issue. Salem News Channel's interview with Rep. Greg Steube frames ALPR surveillance the way we've argued it should be framed from the start: as a constitutional question, not a convenience feature for police departments.

We don't have the text of Steube's bill in front of us, and we're not going to pretend we do. What matters here is the framing. Mass, warrantless tracking of every car that passes a camera — regardless of whether the driver is suspected of anything — is exactly the kind of dragnet the Fourth Amendment was written to prevent. It's encouraging to see that argument made on camera by a lawmaker with the standing to actually move legislation, rather than left to privacy advocates shouting into the void.

Credit to Salem News Channel for putting this conversation on the record. Whatever happens with any specific bill, the fact that elected officials are starting to publicly question the legal basis for networks like Flock's is a sign the political terrain is shifting. If you want to see how many of these cameras are already watching your own community, check our camera map, and if you'd rather not wait on Congress to act, our take-action page has steps you can push for locally right now.