Lawmakers Introduce Multiple Laws to Curb Flock After 404 Media Coverage
404 Media Joseph Cox
Lawmakers just moved to limit Flock cameras after 404 Media’s reporting. The bills could cut off federal access and funding — and even let people sue.
Based on reporting by 404 Media, Joseph Cox — read the original for the full story.
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A new round of bills from Democrats, Republicans, and an independent is aimed at Flock, the license-plate camera company that has become a quiet fixture in American policing. The common thread is simple: lawmakers are trying to choke off federal access to the system, and many of them are pointing directly to 404 Media’s reporting as the reason they’re acting now.
On Friday, Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Jeff Merkley announced the Ban Flock Act. It would block federal agencies from using automatic license plate readers, cut off federal funding to state and local governments that use them, and let Americans sue the federal government over rights violations tied to the cameras. Sanders framed it as a privacy fight against a surveillance setup that is spreading without consent.
The bill’s supporters are tying that argument to a series of reports about how Flock data has actually been used. Sanders said the legislation is partly a response to Flock sharing state information with federal immigration officials. 404 Media previously reported that local police were running Flock searches for ICE, and that Flock later changed parts of the product, including stopping other agencies from searching cameras in Illinois, California, and Virginia and rolling out a tool meant to block impermissible searches in real time.
The newer push also reaches beyond immigration. The Sanders announcement says law enforcement has used Flock data to investigate protests against ICE raids and “No Kings” demonstrations. 404 Media reported both: one case involving California police and an “immigration protest,” and another using Electronic Frontier Foundation data to show cops monitoring No Kings protests around the country. 404 Media also reported that Flock itself showed police how to surveil No Kings protesters in a company webinar.
There’s more. Josh Hawley has his own bill, the Stop Flock Abuse Act, which would require written approval for each search, force agencies to delete driver data after ten days except in active investigations, and ban ALPR networks from adding facial recognition. Greg Casar and Shontel Brown have also asked FBI Director Kash Patel how the bureau plans to get nationwide access to ALPR data, a plan 404 Media first revealed in May.
My take — AI-written commentary, not fact-checked reporting
This is what accountability looks like when lawmakers stop pretending surveillance only matters in the abstract. The awkward part is that Congress seems most capable of acting after journalists lay out the receipts. In Washington, apparently, cameras need a camera pointed at them first.
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