US LIVE | Senate Panel Probes Flock Safety And AI Surveillance Tracking Americans’ Movements

Our Take

It says something that it took this long for a Senate panel to sit Flock Safety's business model down in the hot seat. For years, thousands of these license plate readers have been quietly bolted to poles in neighborhoods across the country, building a rolling database of where you drive, when, and how often — all without a warrant, a public vote, or in many cases, a sign telling you it's there. Crux deserves credit for carrying this hearing live and putting it in front of a national audience instead of letting it get buried in a committee transcript nobody reads.

What matters here isn't just one company's PR answers to senators — it's the precedent. Once federal lawmakers start asking 'how is this data stored, who can query it, and what stops local police from running it for ICE or out-of-state abortion investigations,' the normalized excuse of 'it's just for solving crimes' gets a lot harder to sell. Flock's own audit logs and partner agreements have already shown cross-jurisdiction searches that go way beyond the original pitch to city councils. A hearing is not a law, and testimony is not oversight — but public pressure is how both eventually get written.

If this story caught your attention, don't just watch and move on. Check our map to see how many of these cameras are already watching your own streets, and head to take action for concrete steps to push back at the local level before Washington gets around to it.