Missouri senator announces investigation into Flock cameras

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo, announced Aug. 26 that he is investigating Flock Safety’s collection of data generated by the company’s artificial intelligence (AI) surveillance cameras, as well as the company’s retention and dissemination of the data, saying that “Americans demand a full accounting for how their driver data is stored or sold.” 

In the letter to Flock Safety CEO Garrett Langley, Hawley outlined the extent of Flock’s growth within a few years, pointing to the fact that more than 120,000 cameras across 49 states have been installed. More than 20 billion vehicle scans are completed every month by this company, Hawley asserted. 

“The overwhelming majority of the Americans captured in those records did nothing wrong,” he continued. “Instead of serving discrete local investigations, as contemplated by our constitutional processes and safeguards, these camera networks harness artificial intelligence to pool what they capture into a national database that customers can search.”

The senator, who is the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism, said that there is a “woeful lack of safeguards in these systems,” evident through several recent “examples of abuse and misuse of personal data.” 

One example he gave occurred in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where prosecutors charged a police officer who allegedly searched his girlfriend’s license plate more than 100 times and her ex-boyfriend’s plate 55 times, citing “investigation” as his justification for each search. 

Hawley also argued that Flock cameras have caused errors and false positives, pointing to, among other examples, the Los Angeles Police Department’s termination of its Flock contract after an audit revealed “officers stopped 161 vehicles incorrectly flagged as stolen in the space of two months.” Another example he gave was a Florida woman who spent 13 days in jail and faced eight felony counts — including three counts of vehicular homicide — after investigators arrested a vehicle owner based on searching Flock’s network for a vehicle description. 

“Prosecutors dismissed the charges seven months later when law enforcement discovered the error and arrested a different person,” Hawley said. 

Hawley also raised concerns about what happens to the rest of the expansive data library. He noted that “once cameras collect driver data, uncertainty abounds in how your company and its customers can sell or use data. Flock's $8.3 billion valuation comes with enormous pressure to find new commercial applications. Americans demand a full accounting for how their driver data is stored or sold.”

The investigation will work to determine who has access to Americans’ personal data and how, the senator stated. He requested that Langley produce all requested information and documents by Sept. 8. 

Hawley also acknowledged that public safety is important, while emphasizing privacy rights still apply in citizens’ day-to-day activities around the nation. 

“To be sure, I want law enforcement to have tools to catch offenders and keep the public safe,” he said. “But Americans do not surrender their privacy rights when they drive to work, drop their kids off at school, or go to church.” 

“The Supreme Court has recognized that a comprehensive, retrospective record of a person's movements is different in kind from ordinary observation in public,” Hawley added. “Congress never authorized the network your industry has built. Your company's internal policies are, in practice, the only safeguards for hundreds of millions of Americans. People across the country are now discovering that fact and demanding answers from their elected officials. In light of this abuse of driver information, the American people want to know who has access to their personal data and how.” 

FOX News Digital reported Aug. 22 that Langley has emphasized his view of the technology as crucial for public safety. 

“When people talk about just one of these, privacy or safety, they're prioritizing the wrong thing, and what we have to prioritize as a country is compromise,” Langley told FOX News. “How do we have our safety, and how do we balance privacy?”

Langley also asserted that Flock supports regulation and that the company is focused on ensuring the cameras are used ethically, according to FOX News Digital. The outlet noted that he pointed to the company’s recommendation that data has a seven-day retention limit and that those who misuse the system are held accountable.