On Tuesday, Oct. 13, the city of Inkster, Michigan, said it was going big on Flock Safety. Its license plate readers would go from six to 20, joined by five security cameras, 48 gunshot detection devices and a drone, under a 10-year agreement, city and police officials told WDIV Local 4. Mayor Byron Nolen called it “another step forward for our city.”
The same day, a bill landed in the U.S. House that would cut off federal money for Flock cameras and everything like them. The next day, Rep. Rashida Tlaib came to Inkster to announce it. According to her office, she did it standing in front of a Flock camera, in a city whose officials had just signed a long-term contract with the company.
The bill is H.R. 10807, and its official short title is the Get the Flock Out of Our Communities Act. Among other things, it requires any plate reader paid for with federal money to be removed “not later than 30 days after the date of the enactment of this Act.”
Flock’s CEO spent that same Wednesday on a stage in San Francisco, making the case that his industry shouldn’t slow down.
What the Get the Flock Out of Our Communities Act would do
The bill text goes after what it calls “automated mass surveillance systems,” a category that includes automatic license plate readers, biometric surveillance and facial recognition. It defines a plate reader as “any camera or camera system product or service that automatically captures license plate data of vehicles.” That covers Flock’s product and its competitors.
As written, it would:
- Bar federal, state and local governments from using federal funds to buy, deploy, maintain, access, lease or operate those systems.
- Bar federal agencies from using the systems, or information derived from them, inside the United States.
- Require federally funded systems to come down within 30 days of the law taking effect, and the data they collected to be permanently deleted within seven days.
- Make data gathered in violation of the law inadmissible in court and administrative proceedings.
- Require state and local governments applying for Byrne or COPS law enforcement grants to certify that they don’t use these systems. Those that can’t certify lose eligibility.
That last provision is the one with reach. The 30-day removal applies only to cameras bought or run with federal money, and the Inkster officials’ announcement, as reported, didn’t say how the expansion is being paid for. The grant condition doesn’t care who paid for the camera. A city that runs or taps into a plate reader network would have to choose between the network and two of the federal government’s main streams of police money.
“The mass surveillance crisis is not a dystopian fantasy—it is already here,” said Tlaib, who represents Michigan’s 12th District. Her office says six Democrats signed on as original cosponsors: Sylvia Garcia of Texas, Summer Lee of Pennsylvania, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Delia Ramirez of Illinois, Nydia Velázquez of New York and Bonnie Watson Coleman of New Jersey. About 50 organizations have endorsed it, including EPIC, Demand Progress and Fight for the Future.
Meanwhile, at TechCrunch Disrupt
On Oct. 14, Flock founder and CEO Garrett Langley sat down with TechCrunch editor-in-chief Connie Loizos at the publication’s Disrupt conference at San Francisco’s Moscone Center. According to TechCrunch’s account of its own session, Langley said “we shouldn’t pause progress,” and argued the point with a car: “Driverless cars, I think, are definitively safer than human drivers.”
It isn’t the first time he has used the automobile to make the case. In August, he compared banning his cameras to banning cars.
Asked about police misuse, Langley said, per TechCrunch, “If a customer knowingly broke the law, we would fire them immediately. That’s very easy.” He also said: “Today, we haven’t fired any customers.”
Outside, people were protesting the invitation. The rally was organized by a group called The Wolves, with co-sponsors listed in its public announcement including the Raging Grannies, DSA Silicon Valley and DeFlock SF. The announcement promised speakers, banners and “1984 movie audio clips.” CBS San Francisco filmed a Fight for the Future organizer holding a “Flock=ICE” sign. TechCrunch, which hosted both the conference and the interview, reported some protesters wore cardboard Flock cameras on their heads.
Congress’s fourth Flock bill in six weeks
Tlaib’s bill has company. Counting it, federal lawmakers have rolled out four Flock-focused bills since early September, and two of them use the company’s name as the punchline:
- The Flock-Off Act (H.R. 10221), from Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., filed in early September. It also cuts off federal funds, gives agencies 180 days to remove cameras, and leaves locally funded systems alone. We covered it here.
- The Stop Flock Abuse Act, which Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., announced Sept. 30. It regulates instead of defunding, with a 10-day cap on keeping drivers’ plate data. Flock’s own default is seven.
- The Ban Flock Act, from Sen. Bernie Sanders, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Jeff Merkley, unveiled Oct. 2. It would bar federal agencies from using plate readers and block federal grants to governments that use them or contract with plate reader companies.
- The Get the Flock Out of Our Communities Act, filed Oct. 13.
Flock’s answer to Tlaib came in a written statement to Michigan Public. The company called its technology “an important public safety tool for law enforcement agencies across Michigan” and said, “We support thoughtful, bipartisan legislation that puts strong privacy, transparency, and accountability guardrails in place.”
H.R. 10807’s sponsor and all six cosponsors are Democrats. Of the four bills, the one with members of both parties attached is Massie’s, whose original cosponsors include Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California. It would also cut off federal money.
Inkster is going the other way
Tlaib’s office says more than 200 cities and counties have canceled Flock contracts, including Westland and Lincoln Park, which sit in Wayne County along with Inkster. In Virginia, Richmond said it won’t renew because neighboring Henrico County quit first, the same week Reuters reported Flock would cut about 270 jobs. Inkster’s own council minutes show the program wasn’t a smooth ride there either. In June, the council voted 5-0 to table the police department’s “Safe Cities Program” on the same agenda as a Flock presentation. In July, a resident used public comment to ask how to cancel the contract.
Police Chief Tamika Jenkins told WDIV that an audit feature will flag possible misuse for review and that anyone caught abusing the system would no longer work for the city. She also said, “Those incidents will occur. We can’t say that they won’t.” The city plans to launch a transparency portal with statistics and policies in November.
H.R. 10807 has been referred to the House Oversight and Judiciary committees. So far it has no Republican cosponsors. If it ever became law and reached Inkster’s plate readers, it would give them 30 days. Inkster’s agreement gives them about 3,650. A 10-year contract against a 30-day wind-down: if you lived in Inkster, which one would you bet on?