Congress launches probe into use of Flock cameras

Our Take

When a Republican senator from Missouri starts asking pointed questions about a surveillance company, that's worth paying attention to. NewsNation reports that Sen. Josh Hawley, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism, has opened an inquiry into Flock Safety's camera network. We don't know yet what documents Congress will get or what it'll do with them, but the fact that this is happening at all confirms what we've been saying: Flock's rapid, low-oversight expansion into thousands of towns has outpaced any real public debate about who gets to watch your car's every move.

This is the pattern with Flock cameras nationwide — they show up in a city council consent agenda or a quiet police department purchase order, and suddenly a neighborhood has a permanent record of every vehicle passing through. No warrant, often no public hearing, and a national database that can be queried by agencies far outside the town that installed the camera. A congressional probe, even an early one, is a sign that lawmakers across the aisle are starting to recognize that 'crime-fighting tool' and 'unaccountable mass surveillance network' aren't mutually exclusive descriptions.

We'll be watching how far this inquiry goes, but don't wait on Washington to find out if you're being tracked. Check our camera map to see what's already watching your streets, and head to our take-action page if you want to push back at the local level, where these cameras actually get installed.