Hawley to Introduce Stop Flock Abuse Act, Establishing Safeguards for AI-Powered Cameras

WASHINGTON — Today, U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) announced he will introduce the Stop Flock Abuse Act to establish basic safeguards for AI-powered cameras to ensure these nationwide surveillance networks protect Americans’ constitutional rights. This bill comes after Senator Hawley launched an investigation into AI-powered surveillance cameras and chaired a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism hearing on Flock cameras and the threat they pose to privacy and national security. Though their CEO declined to testify at the hearing, Flock Safety did provide some answers in a written letter to Senator Hawley, agreeing that Congress needs to create a federal framework to regulate this technology. Flock also admitted to instituting some guardrails on their products after coming under public scrutiny. “AI-powered cameras produced by Flock and its competitors are tracking and creating digital footprints of everyday Americans — a nightmare for individual liberties unless Congress enacts meaningful rules and accountability. Last week, my hearing on Flock brought to light the threat that these AI-powered cameras pose to national security and the privacy of everyday Americans,” said Senator Hawley. “That’s why I’m introducing the Stop Flock Abuse Act to establish basic safeguards for AI-powered cameras and protect Americans’ fundamental constitutional rights. Law-abiding Americans should not be treated like criminals.” The Stop Flock Abuse Act would establish the following commonsense guardrails: Never sell data . Local governments that collect vehicle location data cannot sell or share it with non-governmental third parties, protecting drivers’ data from FOIA requests and third-party vendors. No rogue searches. To prevent users from abusing access to these powerful networks under pretext, a written approval process must log every authorization for a search. Preserve an audit log. Agencies must log who searched, why, who approved it, and what was viewed. Supervisors must audit those logs on a regular basis, monitoring for red flags, such as repeat searches of the same person or suspicious justifications. Security and encryption. Data must be encrypted and must never leave the United States. Limit on data retention. Agencies must permanently delete driver data after ten days, with narrow exceptions for active criminal investigations. No hardware or software from foreign adversaries. ALPR technology must not be sourced from foreign adversaries. Prohibition on facial recognition technology. ALPR networks must not incorporate facial recognition, which is ripe for abuse with AI.