Flock cameras become midterm campaign target as voters balk at tech companies' power

Flock cameras have become a target in U.S. midterm campaigns, with candidates from both parties promising to restrict a nationwide surveillance network that records license plates and other characteristics of passing vehicles.

Wisconsin's candidates for governor want limits on the cameras, Pennsylvania candidates have backed a ban, and a Michigan congressional candidate called them “un-American.” A Florida Senate candidate is selling merchandise opposing them. In Texas, Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico recently declared, “Flock cameras have no place in Texas.” His Republican opponent, Ken Paxton, did not respond to a request for comment.

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We've seen candidates running on banning them, cutting off funding, or requiring warrants. That's a credit to activists across the country who have raised concerns about their use.

Flock Safety, an Atlanta-based company, says its cameras operate in 6,000 communities in every state except Alaska. Law enforcement agencies can search and share the data. Police describe the system as an invaluable crime-fighting tool, but critics say its reach amounts to warrantless mass surveillance that violates constitutional protections.

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We ask anyone weighing in on this issue to engage with the facts and the record: the crimes solved, the families reunited, the safeguards already in place, and what our technology actually does.

Michael Soyfer, an attorney with the Institute for Justice, said candidates were running on promises to ban the cameras, cut their funding or require warrants. He called that a result of activists raising concerns about how the technology is used.

Flock spokeswoman MoMo Zhou defended the system, saying it had helped solve approximately one million crimes and reunite roughly 10,000 missing people with their families. She urged critics to consider the company's record and safeguards, work with communities using the technology and avoid spreading misinformation or banning what she called a critical public safety tool.

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We ask them to work with the communities using this technology to decide what rules should govern it and not to spread misinformation or ban a critical public safety tool outright that is helping to make communities safer.

License-plate reader technology has existed for decades, while Flock was founded in 2017. The company has faced a sharper backlash this year as public awareness has grown about the network's reach. Litigation has raised constitutional questions, and news reports have documented cases in which officers allegedly misused the technology to stalk personal connections.

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Flock cameras have no place in Texas.