Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley Probes Flock Safety Over Camera Network
A key United States Senate committee is demanding answers from Flock Safety, launching a formal inquiry into how the artificial intelligence camera company collects, stores, and shares the driving data of millions of Americans.
In a letter sent to Flock Chief Executive Officer Garrett Langley, Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism, announced his panel is investigating the company’s nationwide surveillance network.
Hawley gave Flock until Sept. 8, 2026, to produce documents and internal records regarding data retention, sales, and software safeguards.
The congressional probe zeroes in on the rapid expansion of the Atlanta-based company, which operates over 120,000 cameras across 49 states and captures more than 20 billion vehicle scans every month. While police agencies credit the technology with helping solve crimes, recover stolen vehicles, and track kidnapping suspects, Hawley argued the system has created an unauthorized dragnet of innocent citizens.
“To be sure, I want law enforcement to have tools to catch offenders and keep the public safe,” Hawley wrote. “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. Congress never authorized the network your industry has built.”
Hawley’s inquiry cites several documented instances of system misuse and flawed alerts. In Missouri, the St. Charles County Police Department canceled its contract after an audit revealed a civilian employee used the system for personal searches unrelated to law enforcement work, according to reporting by KCUR. In Wisconsin, prosecutors charged a Milwaukee police officer who allegedly searched his girlfriend’s plate 124 times and her former boyfriend’s plate 55 times by entering “investigation” as the justification each time, as reported by Reason.
The letter also highlighted high-profile errors generated through automated search alerts. In Florida, a woman spent 13 days in jail on felony vehicular homicide charges after investigators arrested her based on a vehicle description search through Flock’s network, Yahoo News reported.
Prosecutors dropped the charges seven months later after identifying the actual suspect. The letter also noted findings cited by Reason, pointing out that one California department saw a 71 percent error rate in alerts, while the Los Angeles Police Department dropped its contract after an audit revealed 161 vehicles were wrongfully stopped as stolen over a two-month span.
The Senate investigation comes amid broader scrutiny of the company. Previous reporting by The Washington Post identified dozens of cases of officer misconduct linked to the camera network, while an investigation by Forbes showed Flock had installed devices on public roads without required permits. Civil liberties groups have warned that the pooled database tracks everyday movements without judicial warrants, while reporting from Fortune noted growing questions over commercial applications tied to the tech firm’s $8.3 billion valuation.
Langley previously addressed privacy criticisms during an interview with CBS News, stating, “Hindsight tends to be very clear. And I think, of course, we could have done more earlier, and we listen, and we learn, and we’ll continue to move forward because until everyone has an equal level of safety in this country, we have work to do.” Following earlier pushback, the company introduced tighter software rules, such as requiring official case numbers for searches and cutting default data storage limits.
Hawley indicated those internal company rules are not enough to satisfy federal oversight. “Your company’s internal policies are, in practice, the only safeguards for hundreds of millions of Americans,” Hawley wrote. “People across the country are now discovering that fact and demanding answers from their elected officials.”