Beleaguered Flock now has the U.S. Senate on its tail

Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri is investigating Flock Safety, the maker of the now-ubiquitous AI-powered Flock cameras, demanding answers from the company about how it captures and retains data on millions of Americans.With over 120,000 cameras in 49 states, Flock has been under scrutiny from the American public for weeks, with some vigilantes destroying the automated license plate readers (ALPR). Now, the Atlanta-based company has to contend with a Senate investigation demanding troves of documentation on its policies, as well as details on how some of the data it captured has been misused. In his letter to Flock, Hawley pointed out that its cameras conduct more than 20 billion vehicle scans monthly, while "the overwhelming majority of the Americans captured in those records did nothing wrong" and all that information is searchable in a national database for Flock’s customers.

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Hawley also laid out numerous cases of misuse of Flock’s data, including police officers using the database for stalking rather than crime investigation.

The letter also highlighted cases of Flock cameras providing incorrect information on cars its surveilled; mistakes that have led to people being wrongfully imprisoned.