The network operator of cameras that scan license plates across the United States, Flock, continues to cause public dissatisfaction, and now Senator Bernie Sanders hopes to see the federal government completely withdraw from this business.
Sanders (Democrat from Vermont) proposed the "Ban on Flock Act" ( Ban Flock Act ) on Friday. This act would prohibit federal agencies from using automatic license plate recognition systems ( ALPR ), and also prohibit them from accessing data collected by local police and private companies' recognition systems. Although the title of the act mentions Flock , the actual text of the act does not name that company specifically, but rather covers all automatic license plate recognition systems.
The bill only allows for two types of exceptions: tolls on toll roads, and uses approved by future legislation passed by Congress; such future legislation must also limit the data retention period to no more than 48 hours.
If this bill becomes law, state and local governments that do not comply with the regulations will face financial penalties. (Like most bills, the likelihood of this bill passing is not high.) Starting from the first fiscal year after the bill takes effect, unless the states and local governments ban this technology, they will lose funding from five federal departments, including the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security.
American citizens can also sue the federal government for violations, and attorneys general of each state may enforce this law as well.
According to Sanders, Flock is the largest automatic license plate recognition system provider in the United States, with over 120,000 cameras. In a blog post in February of this year, the company stated that its network processes more than 20 billion vehicle recognition records per month.
Under the increasing pressure from communities to protest against the product, suspend its use, and cancel contracts at an accelerating pace, Flock has tightened the relevant regulations. In August of this year, Garrett Langley, who previously stated that how the police should use these cameras should be decided by local authorities, announced that the default data retention period would be reduced from 30 days to 7 days.
Customers are now also required to use an auditing tool: when the system identifies abnormal queries, this tool will lock the access rights of the officers involved until the review is completed. In the most high-profile case of an officer abusing the Flock platform, a former officer from Milwaukee pleaded guilty to misconduct after conducting 179 searches for his then-partner and her ex-partners, claiming that the purpose of the searches was "investigation." (In a recent podcast interview, an investor in Jason Calacanis suggested adopting a "dual-key" system, where each query must be approved by two people; Langley stated that this idea "is already on the board."
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (Democrat from New York State) and Senator Jeff Merkley (Democrat from Oregon State) are the co-sponsors of this bill.
As reported by TechCrunch, they will engage in a dialogue with Langley at the Disrupt conference to be held in downtown San Francisco from October 13th to 15th.
