Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez, Merkley announce bill to ban Flock cameras

Oct. 2 (UPI) — A group of progressive lawmakers introduced a bill Friday seeking to ban the use of license plate readers by federal agencies.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., announced the Ban Flock Act to block agencies from using the cameras and stop grant funding for state and local contracts going toward the technology.

“At a time of growing concern about the unchecked power of artificial intelligence, Flock is eviscerating the very notion of privacy by installing tens of thousands of cameras in communities across America without their consent,” Sanders said in a statement. “Going to the doctor? Flock knows. Dropping your kid off at school? Flock is tracking you. Flock is always watching. We cannot allow America to become a surveillance state where a handful of AI oligarchs profit by giving the government the power to track our every movement.”

Flock is one of several firms that offers license plate readers to state and local governments across the country; it is perhaps the most notorious. Last year, more than 120,000 Flock cameras were installed.

In recent months incidents have come to light of law enforcement officers misusing the technology, in some cases to stalk and harass people who are not the subjects of criminal investigations. These incidents have also involved police officers stalking former romantic partners.

Concerns have been raised about the technology from Democrats and Republicans. Last month, Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., introduced the Flock-Off Act, which seeks to block local governments from even attempting to purchase or integrate automatic license plate readers and biometric surveillance cameras in their communities.

The bill by Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez and Merkley orders that no federal agency, federal official or person acting on behalf of the federal government can acquire, possess, access or use an automatic license plate reader or captured license plate data. This would include license plate data pulled from a database.

An act of Congress would be required to make exceptions for the use of automatic license plate readers.

“Across the country, Big Tech companies like Flock Safety have built a mass surveillance system to harvest Americans’ private and personal data without their consent,” Ocasio-Cortez said in a statement. “AI-powered cameras are keeping track of our every move and weaponizing this data against working people to make record profits.”