Hawley rips Flock’s sprawling surveillance web as Texas cities cut cameras over privacy and data fears

Sen.

Josh Hawley is demanding answers from Flock Safety over whether its rapidly expanding network of AI-powered cameras has helped create a searchable national database of Americans’ movements as communities across the country pull the plug on the technology amid mounting privacy concerns.

"Flock has assembled an unprecedented national surveillance network," Hawley, R-Mo., told Fox News Digital.

"They boast more than 120,000 cameras across 49 states and more than 20 billion vehicle scans every month." "I’m investigating Flock cameras to determine who has access to hundreds of millions of Americans’ data and what they’re doing with it," he added.

"Americans deserve answers." POWERFUL CRIME-FIGHTING SURVEILLANCE GROWTH SPURS LAWMAKERS TO ISSUE WARNING: 'ORWELLIAN' Robert Frommer, director of the Institute for Justice’s Project on the Fourth Amendment, told Fox News Digital that the core concern is not simply the use of cameras, but police being able to search a person’s past movements without first getting approval from a judge.

"The number one reform that I think is needed here is a warrant," Frommer said.

"Go to a judge, explain to the judge why you should be able to use this tool." FLOCK SAFETY CAMERAS NEED CONSTITUTIONAL GUARDRAILS BEFORE FURTHER DEPLOYMENT, TENNESSEE MAYOR ARGUES Frommer said police should still be able to act immediately in genuine emergencies, including cases involving imminent danger or missing people, but should be required to justify the search afterward if there was no time to obtain a warrant.

"Most law enforcement searches are things that happen within a few days of the crime," he said.

"You don’t need to be keeping this gigantic database on everybody’s movements." FLOCK SURVEILLANCE SPREADS ACROSS THE SOUTH AS RED-STATE LAWMAKERS SEEK TO AX '1984'-STYLE TRACKING TOOLS Hawley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism, launched the investigation Wednesday in a letter to Flock CEO Garrett Langley.

The Missouri Republican said Flock’s camera network goes far beyond the discrete, local investigations for which law enforcement surveillance tools are traditionally used.

LICENSE PLATE CAMERAS AT HOME DEPOT AND LOWE’S SPARK PRIVACY FEARS "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," Hawley wrote.

Flock’s automated license plate reader cameras capture passing vehicles and can log details including a vehicle’s license plate, description, location and time.

The Atlanta-based company markets its technology to law enforcement agencies, businesses and homeowners associations.