The weird coalition taking on Flock

A Flock camera photographed in Costa Mesa, California, on August 17, 2026. | Paul Bersebach/Getty Images This story appeared in Today, Explained, a daily newsletter that helps you understand the most compelling news and stories of the day.

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I passed five Flock cameras on my drive to work today, entirely without realizing it.

The AI-powered license plate readers have metastasized on light poles and roadside posts across the country over the past few years, building a vast national database of vehicle movements that law enforcement agencies can access with few restrictions.

What are they doing with all that data? Who has access, and for how long? We don’t have clear answers to these questions — and lawmakers on both the right and the left increasingly want them.

Yesterday, Senate Republicans opened an inquiry into Flock’s data “collection, retention, and dissemination” practices — a first step that could eventually lead to federal regulation.

State officials have also called for restrictions: The technology is “out of control,” Florida Gov.

Ron DeSantis said during a Wednesday press conference.

It is one of maybe three times, I would hazard, that DeSantis and Vermont Sen.

Bernie Sanders have agreed on anything.

Earlier this month, the independent senator also warned that Flock knows when you’re going to the doctor or dropping your kid off at school, among other things.

For many Americans, his warning was no exaggeration: There are now 120,000 Flock cameras on US roads.

You can use the crowdsourced map DeFlock to check your area.

Go a little deeper View Link As the existence of a crowdsourced anti-Flock map might attest…people really do not like these cameras.