Worse than Flock: Josh Hawley expands 'unprecedented national surveillance' investigation

Americans are concerned about being surveilled as soon as they step out their front doors these days.From doorbell cameras to traffic cameras to surveillance cameras that pick up any signal in the car, citizens have become particularly wary of the capabilities of Flock Safety cameras. So much so that Missouri Republican Senator Josh Hawley opened an investigation into the surveillance company in late August, but he's not stopping with Flock.'Flock does not stand alone in this industry.'About a week after presenting frightening evidence of misuse of Flock's database and systems, Senator Hawley revealed he will expand his investigation to include three more surveillance companies.Motorola Solutions Inc., Verkada Inc., and Axon Enterprise Inc. will now be looked into, with Motorola representing the second-most-used surveillance company in the nation, according to DeFlock. Of the 138,000+ known automated license plate reader cameras in the United States — of which Flock operates a reported 82% — Motorola controls about 5%.In a series of letters, Hawley told the company CEOs the following."On August 26th, I wrote to your competitor Flock Safety to express my concerns regarding the size and pervasiveness of its network and demanding answers as to reports of abuse and costly errors from its technology. However, Flock does not stand alone in this industry; you and others are building large camera networks, assisted by artificial intelligence, that intrude on the privacy of all Americans."Similar to his letter to Flock, the senator referred to the "unprecedented national surveillance network" across 49 states that conducts "more than 20 billion vehicle scans" per month.RELATED: Flock doesn’t care if you’re innocent Hawley also cited the same evidence of misuse as he did in his letter to Flock, such as how prosecutors in Milwaukee charged a police officer for allegedly searching the Flock system for his girlfriend's license plate 124 times and her former boyfriend's plate 55 times.Also included was a story about a Florida woman who spent 13 days in jail while facing eight felony counts after she was falsely identified using a Flock network search."To be sure, I want law enforcement to have tools to catch offenders and keep the public safe," Hawley told the companies. "But the surveillance network your company has constructed raises legitimate concerns about how little-known corporations possess intimate knowledge of Americans’ lives, fueled by invasive artificial intelligence algorithms."Asking the CEOs to provide adequate documentation, Hawley concluded: "The American people want to know who has access to their personal data and how. This investigation will seek those answers."RELATED: 'Americans deserve answers': Hawley opens Flock investigation with damning new evidence Joe Raedle/Getty ImagesBefore Hawley's initial August 26 letter, Flock CEO Garrett Langley had already promised changes to how the company requires its customers (police forces) to use the system.As reported by the Associated Press, any law enforcement that uses Flock will have to implement an audit tool that flags any abnormal search behavior. Abnormal searches would result in the user being locked out until the activity is reviewed.One of Senator Hawley's examples of misuse included an officer simply writing "investigation" for his search reasons on the network.In terms of user data, Flock said it would shorten the standard data retention window from 30 days to seven days. However, data collected by Flock cameras will be owned by the customer, and the data will be allowed to be retained for a longer period if it is tied to a case as evidence.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!