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Senate Panel Opens Hearing on Flock Safety's AI License Plate Network

September 23, 2026 at 14:04 EDT

Policy & Regulation
Security

The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism is set to examine Flock Safety's nationwide AI-powered camera network on Wednesday, September 23, 2026, in a 2:30 p.m. ET hearing focused on how license plate data is collected, accessed and shared. The hearing, titled "Always Watching: Flock's Nationwide AI Surveillance Network," places automated license plate readers at the center of a wider fight over AI surveillance, policing and privacy.

Sept. 23, 2026 - Senate hearing

Flock's AI camera network faces a federal spotlight

A Senate panel is examining who can search nationwide license plate data, how long it is kept and what happens when automated matches go wrong.

120,000+

cameras across the U.S.

states in the network

20B+

vehicle scans per month

52%

unfavorable in one recent poll

Retention shifts from 30 days to 7

The most concrete platform change is shorter default storage for LPR data.

How a plate read becomes a lead

Capture vehicle

Extract plate and traits

Search shared data

Log and review

Public-safety case

Flock estimates about 1 million supported investigations in 2025 and roughly 10,000 missing people located.

Oversight concern

Critics focus on misuse, false positives and whether cross-jurisdiction searches are too broad.

The core question

Can local controls, audit logs and shorter retention govern a private camera network that operates at national scale?

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