The Movement: Flock cameras rile up privacy-minded right 

Resistance to the AI vehicle surveillance systems operated by Flock Safety is growing on the right, invigorating privacy-conscious conservatives despite the company garnering praise from law enforcement for helping solve crimes.

The dynamic is showcasing how conservative support for law and order is often in conflict with values on privacy — all while bringing up fears of mission creep.

“Flock cameras now log approximately 20 BILLION vehicle scans every month. That’s not targeted policing of bad guys. That’s mass collection and surveillance – not safety,” Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) wrote on social media last week. “STOP THE FLOCK.”

Flock sells a system of license plate readers, video cameras and audio detection devices integrated in its AI database that records not only license plate numbers, but vehicle information like make, model, color and bumper stickers. Localities can share data with other law enforcement agencies, resulting in a major network that law enforcement can tap to help solve crimes. It is focused on vehicle information, not biometric data or facial recognition.

The company notes that courts have found automated license plate readers (ALPRs) — the technology used by Flock and its competitors — rely on information in view of the public and are constitutional, arguing that the system “respects civil liberties” and deletes data after 30 days unless local laws call for it to be stored for a longer or shorter period of time.

And Flock has flaunted cases in which the technology was used to help solve human trafficking, vehicle theft, retail theft and homicide cases.

Civil liberties watchdogs, though, warn that the systems are easily abused by bad actors in law enforcement and say the “creepy” system tests the limits of the Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable searches and seizures.

Much of the pushback against Flock and ALPRs has been on the political left, with liberal cities canceling contracts with Flock in part over concerns that some localities have shared Flock data with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Flock CEO Garrett Langley has evoked law-and-order appeals while selling and defending the company and its technology, offering a grand, optimistic vision of eliminating almost all crime in the U.S., according to a Forbes profile last year. 

He called the activist group DeFlock — a project that maps Flock cameras across the U.S. — a “terroristic organization” whose “primary motivation is chaos” and compared them to antifa. (Langley later apologized for the comments, Forbes reported.)

Flock has also gotten support from venture capital funds linked to top figures on the tech-right. The Marc Andreessen-founded Andreessen Horowitz and Peter Thiel-backed Founders Fund invested in Flock in a $275 million funding round last year that brought its valuation to $7.5 billion. 

But despite the GOP campaigning heavily on public safety just a few years ago, the Flock skepticism is quickly expanding to the “get-a-warrant” faction of Republicans and conservatives. These are the kind of conservatives who also critique foreign spy powers authorized by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act because they can sweep up Americans’ communications.

That pushback has now reached the halls of Congress, with more Republicans coming out against Flock by the day.

Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) introduced a bill last week to prevent any federal agencies from purchasing or accessing any ALPR systems, including Flock’s. 

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) said he is introducing a bill to defund police departments and localities that use........

© The Hill