The Record reported on 2 October that two bills on automatic license plate recognition (ALPR) cameras were introduced in Congress. Both are proposals, not law. Sen. Josh Hawley, a Republican, filed the Stop Flock Abuse Act on Wednesday. It would bar ALPR firms and local governments from passing driver data to private outsiders. It would require encryption, ban facial recognition, and cap storage at 10 days. Many departments can now keep Flock data for 30 days, the Record says. On Friday, Sens. Bernie Sanders and Jeff Merkley and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez proposed a broader bill. It would bar federal use of ALPRs, withhold federal money from states that deploy them, and let people sue the federal government over rights violations.
The Record says both bills would cover all ALPR companies, including Motorola and Axon, and that some police departments have switched from Flock to another vendor. It is unclear whether leaders will hold votes after the elections. Flock has said it runs 120,000 cameras. Researcher Joshua Michael's 23 September map shows more than 170,000 Flock cameras. The report does not settle the gap.
Hawley said these networks stand out because the cameras are linked and AI can search them. For buyers, the exposure sits in that shared network: how long data is kept, who can search it, and who receives it. Ask vendors for those answers.