Fifty officers have already been caught using Flock cameras to stalk women, spy on exes, and track romantic partners.
Now one GOP lawmaker found out the AI can target your bumper sticker too.
What Flock Safety put in writing about that search tool has one GOP lawmaker ready to shut it down.
How Flock Safety License Plate Readers Are Turning Bumper Stickers Into Government Tracking Data
Flock Safety – the company behind those license plate cameras on American streets – admits its FreeForm search lets users find vehicles using plain-language descriptions.
The "Back the Blue" sticker, the "Jesus Saves" decal, the "Let's Go Brandon" bumper sticker are all searchable through that system – and every plate those cameras photograph is already logged against the driver's location across every road they cover.
Rep. Pat Harrigan (R-NC) introduced legislation this month to ban exactly that – barring government agencies from building searchable profiles based on what he calls "expressive attributes," including political or religious bumper stickers, flags, and decals.
"When you consider that these systems track everything that you do – where you work, where your kids go to school, where you even go to church – I think it's pretty easy to understand why people are concerned," Harrigan told Fox News Digital.
"So, that's an extraordinary amount of information about somebody that the government has that has never committed a crime," he added.
More than 100,000 license plate cameras now operate across the country.
Harrigan's bill would require a probable-cause warrant before most searches, mandate that records be deleted within 24 hours, and prohibit Flock from selling driver location data or using it to train AI models.
Agencies would also be required to log every search, publish annual reports, and submit to audits – so the next time officers abuse the system, there is a paper trail.
States that refuse to comply would lose 10% of their federal criminal justice funding, and every American whose data gets illegally searched would have the right to sue for at least $1,000 per violation – with illegally obtained evidence blocked from court.
Fifty Officers Already Caught Abusing Flock Camera Data and Fourth Amendment Rights Are Next
An August investigation found that at least 50 officers had been accused or charged with misusing license plate readers – with Flock's own system implicated in 46 of those cases. Officers used the cameras to spy on romantic partners, track ex-girlfriends, and stalk women. Fifty is only the number that got caught.
Flock says its safeguards are "designed to block searches for vehicles based on political or religious bumper stickers and symbols." Those safeguards were supposed to prevent stalking too.
As recently as December 2025, the Joplin, Missouri, Police Department reported a "policy violation" involving improper Flock use – and Flock's own leaked data was compiled into a public database called HaveIBeenFlocked, where anyone can look up whether their plate has been run and why.
Trump told reporters in September he "sort of" likes Flock cameras for how law enforcement uses them, and the results back him up – license plate readers identified the suspect in the assassination attempt against him.
Harrigan isn't trying to kill the cameras – he's trying to make sure they don't get turned against the people they're supposed to protect.
In the Senate, Josh Hawley is pushing the Stop Flock Abuse Act, making this a coordinated conservative push, not just one congressman from North Carolina.
Flock Safety is a private company that can be pressured, hacked, sold, or handed a government subpoena – and there is currently no federal law governing what they do with that data or who they can share it with.
Every "Trump 2024" bumper sticker in America is sitting in Flock's database tonight. If a future Democrat administration decides it wants a list of every vehicle flying a Trump sticker or a Back the Blue decal, the system to build that list is already running.
Every flag, sticker, and decal on every truck across every red county in America is already in that database.
The Founders wrote the Fourth Amendment because they understood exactly what government surveillance does to free people. A gulag isn't required – making Americans afraid to put a sticker on their car is enough.
Sources:
- Kiera McDonald and Morgan Phillips, "Your bumper sticker could help Flock cameras track where you go; new bill aims to stop it," Fox News, October 17, 2026.
- Fox News Digital, "Hawley Rips Flock's Sprawling Surveillance Web as Texas Cities Cut Cameras Over Privacy and Data Fears," Fox News, 2026.
- "Privacy fears push Flock cameras into the spotlight in Arizona," AZFamily/KOLD, January 16, 2026.
