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WASHINGTON — Flock cameras are under new scrutiny in the Senate as a privacy backlash against the law enforcement technology grows.
The Senate Judiciary Committee’s panel on Crime and Counterterrorism will hold a hearing on Wednesday focused on the automated license plate readers, subcommittee Chairman Josh Hawley, R-Mo., announced Friday.
He invited the CEOs of Flock and three other surveillance and security-focused companies to testify at the hearing, though he did not specify if the executives had agreed to testify.
In a statement, Hawley’s office said that Garrett Langley of Flock Safety, Rick Smith of Axon Enterprise, Greg Brown of Motorola Solutions and Filip Kaliszan of Verkada were invited.
A spokesperson for Verkada said Kaliszan could not attend, but the company is providing information to the subcommittee. The spokesperson also stressed that no national Verkada network exists and that customers “can only access the data in their own systems.”
Comment from the other companies was not immediately available.
Hawley posted the announcement to social media, writing that “Americans deserve answers.”
The hearing comes after Hawley announced an investigation in August into Flock’s “collection, retention, and dissemination of the data generated by its artificial intelligence surveillance cameras.”
“The overwhelming majority of the Americans captured in those records did nothing wrong,” Hawley said in a statement announcing the investigation. “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.”
A Data for Progress poll conducted in August found that 41% of respondents had an unfavorable view of Flock surveillance cameras, with similar percentages for Democrats at 40% and Republicans at 39%.
The cameras have raised privacy concerns, including from reports of police officers using data from the cameras to stalk people, including ex-partners.
Earlier this week, FBI Director Kash Patel testified at a hearing held by the Senate Judiciary Committee that the cameras are put up by local jurisdictions.
“They collect information, not the FBI, where there is no reasonable expectation of privacy, basically publicly available information,” he said. “Where the FBI partners with these individuals is on a case-by-case basis and not a rolling-access basis.”
He went on to give examples of the FBI’s use of data from license plate readers, including after a shooting at Brown University and “chasing down child predators.”
At least four bills have been introduced in the House related to the use of automated license plate readers. All are bipartisan or sponsored by Republicans. Langley was also pressured this week by Sens. Adam B. Schiff, D-Calif., and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., in a letter seeking information on Flock’s actions to “prevent system misuse of any kind.”
Hawley has been publicly skeptical of AI and privacy, including the use of personal data for “surveillance pricing.” He held a subcommittee hearing on that issue in August.
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