120,000 cameras, 2bn scans a month: how Flock united America's left and right
Cameras on poles across America photograph car number plates and log where you drove. Police used that database to follow ex-partners and women travelling for abortions — and now Republicans and Democrats are angry about the same thing at the same time.
Flock Safety makes small cameras that sit on poles and photograph the number plate of every car passing by. Police and security firms use them to track where cars go. There are around 120,000 of them across the US, running roughly 2bn scans a month. That is not surveillance of suspects. That is a log of everyone who drives.
Then came the reports of what people did with it. Police officers in several states used the cameras to stalk ex-lovers and to track people seeking abortions. The network is also frequently used by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. And something unusual started happening: politicians who agree on nothing agreed on this.
The interesting part is not the outrage. It's the shape of it. Greg Abbott, the Republican governor of Texas, blocked state agencies from buying Flock products. Bernie Sanders is promising legislation to restrict the cameras. Republican senator Josh Hawley opened an investigation into possible privacy abuses. Democratic congressman Ro Khanna is cosponsoring a bill with Republican congressman Thomas Massie to stop federal money being spent on Flock cameras. Same week, same company, opposite ends of the political map.
Jay Stanley of the ACLU explains why the two sides land in the same place from different directions: on the left, a memory of police spying on people pushing for social change; on the right, a long 'don't tread on me' tradition of keeping government out of your life. Matthew Guariglia of the Electronic Frontier Foundation puts the practical version of it: cameras outlast the government that installed them. You might trust whoever holds the keys today. The next administration gets the same equipment.
A camera is a decision you can't take back at the next election.
There is also a catch worth knowing before you celebrate. More than 100 jurisdictions have cancelled contracts, according to data from the Institute for Justice — but municipal leaders sometimes replace Flock's plate readers with another brand and keep the surveillance running. Cancelling a contract and ending the tracking are two different events, and only one of them makes the news.
Anyone who drives, rents, or borrows a car — which in most of America is everyone with a job. If you commute, visit a clinic, attend a protest, or park outside somebody's house at 2am, a plate reader can place your car there, and Flock's software lets police in one state pull a scan made by a department in another. It also touches people who don't drive at all but care where this ends: 46% of Americans now oppose plate readers in their community, up 13 points in a year, and roughly 75% oppose new datacenter construction near them. Two different technologies, one same feeling — the stuff is being installed near me and nobody asked.
Watch three things the source actually names. Whether Sanders introduces his bill to restrict Flock cameras. What Hawley's investigation into potential privacy abuses turns up. And whether the Khanna–Massie bill blocking federal funds for Flock cameras moves. Boston University law and computer science professor Woodrow Hartzog expects the actions to continue at state and local level, and expects politicians will have to respond. No dates were given for any of it. Flock Safety was asked for a statement by the Guardian and did not respond before publication.
Stanley has been at the ACLU more than 20 years and says he has never seen a grassroots uprising against surveillance technology like this. Hartzog reads it the same way: proof that these tools are not inevitable. The awkward question is what the 100-plus cancelled contracts really bought — a stop, or a change of supplier.
Sources: The Guardian (Technology), 'Cut the cameras: Flock surveillance cameras spur rare bipartisan backlash' by Thor Benson, 5 September 2026.
120 тысяч камер сканируют номера машин 2 млрд раз в месяц, полицейские использовали эту базу, чтобы следить за бывшими и за женщинами, ездившими на аборт, — и впервые против слежки объединились левые и правые, а больше сотни городов уже разорвали контракты.
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