Re: perry-garcía Amendment to ban Flock automatic license plate readers. by Demand Progress on May 21, 2026 RootsAction is a signer of this letter to The Honorable Sam Graves The Honorable Rick Larsen, Chairman and Ranking Member, Committee on Transportation & Infrastructure Dear Chairman Graves and Ranking Member Larsen: Rootsaction urge the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure to support Rep. Scott Perry and Rep. Chuy García's amendment to the Highway Bill that would restrict the use of automatic license plate readers except for tolling purposes. The rapid growth of this surveillance technology in recent years, led in large part by the company Flock Safety, poses a serious threat to the privacy, civil liberties, and constitutional rights of Americans. Americans' concerns about government surveillance reach back to the Founding itself. The Founders were well aware of the powers and risks of an almighty government with unrestricted surveillance powers. That is why they formulated the Fourth Amendment to protect Rootsaction from unreasonable searches, and modern courts have found that automated license plate recognition (ALPR) technology can be unreasonable. Surveillance infrastructure like this does not stay within the uses its architects intend, and when it expands, it is people of faith, political minorities, and communities already subject to over-policing who bear the consequences first. In this 250th year since the Founding, Rootsaction must put freedom first. Today, Flock Safety contracts with more than 5,000 law enforcement agencies and operates over 80,000 AI-powered cameras across 49 states. These cameras photograph every vehicle that passes, regardless of any suspicion of wrongdoing. All the data collected - license plate data, vehicle descriptions, location, and time - are stored, and a majority of that data is in a centralized, searchable national database that is accessible to law enforcement on demand without court approval. And while Flock is the largest and most aggressive operator, these concerns apply to ALPR technology industry wide as any system that photographs every passing vehicle, stores that data, and makes it searchable by law enforcement without court approval poses the same fundamental threats to privacy and civil liberties. Flock Safety's automatic license plate reader technology has expanded in recent years to become a mass domestic surveillance tool. Flock introduced AI analytics products that shift the company from providing tools for officials to use in existing investigations to proactively generating suspicion that rises to the level of warranting an investigation. Flock technology scans the movement patterns of all vehicles in its national dataset and alerts law enforcement if it perceives movements as suspicious or criminal. The "Convoy Search" feature allows police to track vehicles frequently seen together, enabling the surveillance of Americans' free associations even without existing suspicion of criminal activity. Flock also launched live video feeds on its cameras, a significant expansion beyond the still-image capture that was used to justify the technology to communities when they considered adopting it in the first place. Flock's data-sharing practices have also raised local concerns. Town officials in Hillsborough, North Carolina canceled their contract with Flock, citing concerns about data privacy. The contract included language that could be interpreted as allowing Flock to disclose data to any government entity or third party based on a "good faith belief" of a need to do so. In California, the state attorney general sued the City of El Cajon after discovering that Flock's system had facilitated data sharing with agencies in hundreds of outside jurisdictions, in violation of state privacy law. A Colorado resident who was investigated without cause using Flock surveillance footage was told by the law enforcement official, "You can't get a breath of fresh air in or out without us knowing." The system's security vulnerabilities present additional serious privacy concerns. In 2025, at least 60 of Flock's AI-powered surveillance cameras were found exposed online without password protection, allowing anyone with a link to watch live feeds and access up to 30 days of archived video, including footage of unattended children on a playground, which shows that Flock is no longer just about road traffic. Flock cameras can be physically compromised in seconds with exposed USB ports, hardcoded Wi-Fi network names, unencrypted image storage, and no two-factor authentication required for the police portal used to access sensitive data. In November, Sen. Wyden and Rep. Krishnamoorthi urged the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Flock for failing to implement adequate cybersecurity protections. At least 53 cities across 20 states have terminated or rejected Flock camera usage, with many citing privacy concerns and the risks of a system over which they have little meaningful control. As the FBI prepares to spend $36 million on a nationwide license plate reader system capable of tracking any vehicle in "near real time," it is more critical than ever that Congress shields Americans from being subjected to warrantless, suspicionless tracking of their everyday lives. Reps. Perry and Garcia's amendment offers a direct solution to invasive surveillance practices: restricting the use of automatic license plate readers except for the purpose of tolling. Rootsaction urge Members of the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure to support this critical step in protecting the privacy rights of all Americans. Sincerely, 18 MILLION RISING Access Now Advocacy for Principled Action in Government American Civil Liberties Union Americans For Prosperity Amnesty International USA Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC Black Voters Matter Fund Common Cause Consumer Choice Center Consumer Federation of America Defending Rights & Dissent Deflock Olympia Demand Progress Due Process Institute Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) Fight for the Future Free Press Action Holy Spirit Missionary Sisters, USA-JPIC Japanese American Citizens League Libertas Institute Long Beach Alliance for Clean Energy Lucy Parsons Labs Make the Road States Mass 50501 Muslims for Just Futures National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers National Association of Voice Actors (NAVA) National Tongan American Society Northwest Indivisible Oakland Privacy PFLAG Skagit Project for Privacy and Surveillance Accountability Restore the Fourth RootsAction Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund (SALDEF) Thai Community Development Center (Thai CDC) The Alliance for Secure AI The Nexus of Privacy The Workers Circle Wisconsin Muslim Civic Alliance UnidosUS cc: Members of the Committee on Transportation & Infrastructure

Commerce City expands Flock surveillance contract as Denver moves away from technology company. Commerce City just approved a new $4.5 million contract with Flock for license plate reading cameras, drones and shot spotter technology. COMMERCE CITY, Colo. - As Denver dismantles its network of Flock Safety license plate reader cameras over data-sharing concerns, Commerce City is heading in the opposite direction. City Council just approved a $4.5 million contract expansion over the next five years with Flock. Commerce City Police is showcasing what officials describe as a transformative public safety tool. Commerce City Police Commander Jeremy Jenkins, who oversees the department's Real-Time Crime Center, said the technology is producing measurable results. "We are seeing arrests of auto theft offenders," Jenkins said. "We're seeing arrests of violent offenders. We're seeing higher apprehension rates in real time." The Real-Time Crime Center at the Commerce City Civic Center gives officers remote visibility across Commerce City's approximately 35 square miles using three Flock technologies: license plate readers, drones and shot spotter gunshot detection devices. The center currently operates from 10 a.m. to midnight, with plans to expand to 24-hour coverage by the end of the year. Flock drones launched 391 times during March alone, according to Jenkins. The drones are controlled remotely and can be deployed anywhere in the city, giving officers a live view of a scene before they arrive. The Flock shot spotter devices do more than detect gunfire. They can also identify the sounds of street racing and car crashes. When technicians receive a potential crash alert, they can immediately access a nearby camera to assess the situation, potentially dispatching officers before anyone calls 911. On data privacy, Jenkins sought to reassure people that Commerce City has thought through the concerns about data sharing and privacy that led Denver to terminate its relationship with Flock. "We do not do any federal sharing of our data. That is one of the restrictions that we can set within Flock," he said, adding that the department owns all information gathered by the devices. "Each agency determines who they share information with. Commerce City is no different." Data that is not flagged for evidentiary use is purged from the system within 30 days, Jenkins said. Jenkins acknowledged that public concerns about surveillance technology are legitimate, but said Commerce City has addressed them through internal safeguards. "We absolutely understand the concerns that go along with new technology and with what certain technologies bring if they're misused," he said. "We're comfortable and reliant on the guardrails that we've put in place." Jenkins also pushed back against the notion that one city's decision should dictate another's approach. "What's good for one community may not be good for another community," Jenkins said. "Each community has its own needs and its own expectations." Jenkins said the department's commitment is ultimately to accountability and keeping people safe. "I think the reputation that we want to build here is that we love our community, we want to take care of our community, and if somebody wants to come in and victimize one of the members of our community, we're going to do everything in our power to make sure that person is held accountable," he said. Denver, which ended its Flock contract over federal data-sharing concerns, has since contracted with a different vendor, Axon, that provides comparable surveillance capabilities. Axon's cameras have not yet been installed in Denver, and the city is currently operating with no broad license plate reading cameras.