Cybersecurity Policy Report, Hawley Broadens Probe Into Privacy Impacts of License Plate Readers, (Sep 8, 2026)
Organizations Mentioned:Axon Enterprise, Inc. | Motorola Solutions | Verkada, Inc.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R., Mo.) is broadening his probe into the operations and data-retention practices of providers of automated license plate recognition (ALPR) technology beyond Flock Safety.
Citing numerous examples of the misuse of ALPR systems, Sen. Hawley sent letters to three additional ALPR providers—Motorola Solutions, Inc., Verkada, Inc., and Axon Enterprise, Inc.—demanding answers from the companies about their vehicle surveillance systems.
“As Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism, I am investigating your company’s collection, retention, and dissemination of the data generated by artificial intelligence surveillance cameras,” he told the companies’ chief executive officers.
Sen. Hawley noted that he recently opened an investigation into Flock’s policies regarding surveillance and privacy (CPR, Aug. 26).
“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,” he told the CEOs.
“Instead of serving discrete local investigations, as contemplated by our constitutional processes and safeguards, these camera networks harness artificial intelligence to pool what they capture into a national database that customers can search,” he said.
He cited reports of Flock’s service being used by law enforcement employees for personal reasons and “errors and false positives” that have led to innocent individuals being charged with crimes.
He set a Sept. 16 deadline for the CEOs to produce a large volume of documents about how they train users and determine where to place cameras and how long they retain data, among other things.
“To be sure, I want law enforcement to have tools to catch offenders and keep the public safe. 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,” Sen. Hawley told the CEOs.
“The Supreme Court recognizes that a comprehensive, retrospective record of a person’s movements is different in kind from ordinary observation in public, and Congress never authorized the network your industry has built,” he noted.
“Your company’s internal policies are, in practice, the only safeguards for hundreds of millions of Americans,” Sen. Hawley added. “People across the country are now discovering that fact and demanding answers from their elected officials.”
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