Tucker Carlson called out Flock CEO Garrett Langley for branding camera mappers a terroristic organization.
Now a Senate investigation proved Langley's network is watching twice what the company ever admitted.
The company's answer to that researcher arrived less than 24 hours after his Senate testimony.
How Josh Hawley's Flock Safety Investigation Ended With One Silenced Researcher
On September 23rd, cybersecurity researcher Joshua Michael did something that should have earned him a medal.
He published a map of 335,701 Flock Safety surveillance devices – built entirely from data leaked from Flock's own systems – on the same day the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism held its "Always Watching" hearing into Flock's nationwide AI surveillance network.
Flock has publicly said it operates more than 120,000 cameras.
Michael's map showed more than 170,000 cameras – plus another 130,000 devices including acoustic sensors and networking equipment connecting third-party cameras into the same national database.
Michael had flagged the vulnerability to Flock back in November 2025 and heard nothing back.
When the Senate called, Garrett Langley, along with the CEOs of Axon, Motorola Solutions, and Verkada, all refused to show up and testify.
Senate Judiciary Chairman Josh Hawley didn't need them to make the point.
"If you haven't heard of Flock," Hawley told the chamber, "Flock's probably heard of you."
"Congress never authorized the network your industry built," Hawley said.
Flock Safety License Plate Readers Sent an Innocent Woman to Jail While the CEO Refused to Testify
Lindsey Isaacs drove near a crash scene in Florida and a Flock camera placed her vehicle at the scene.
She spent 13 days in jail.
That's not a civil liberties talking point – that's a real woman in a real cell because an AI flagged the wrong car.
Hawley revealed that Flock has applied for a patent that, combined with its existing AI, would expand the company's reach from license plates to individuals – including, Hawley said, facial recognition.
Meanwhile, a San Francisco class action alleged more than 1.6 million outside queries of that city's cameras in seven months alone – the FBI, ICE, CBP, ATF, and DEA all accessing local footage that cities never explicitly authorized for federal use.
A former Pentagon AI chief warned that Flock is building the infrastructure of a China-like surveillance state inside the United States.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott ordered every state agency to stop spending state money on Flock cameras, saying Americans don't surrender their privacy when they drive to work, drop their kids at school, or go to church.
By August 2026, 93 cities and counties had cancelled Flock contracts – and 2026's full-year cancellations were on pace to triple every contract cancellation from the previous five years combined.
The company's answer to all of it came September 24th – one day after the Senate hearing.
Flock dispatched a trademark complaint through a proxy firm demanding Michael take the map down, claiming the site caused customer confusion – even though the map already carries a disclaimer stating it has no affiliation with Flock Safety.
This is the second time Flock has used legal muscle to silence a mapmaker.
In early 2025, they targeted Will Freeman's DeFlock project with the same playbook – and the Electronic Frontier Foundation shut them down.
Flock built its entire business on watching Americans without their knowledge. The moment a researcher turned that lens around and showed the country where Flock's own cameras were, the company called its lawyers.
Greg Abbott Just Cut Off Flock Safety Camera Funding and the Flock-Off Act Is Next
Flock isn't a government agency you can vote out of power.
It is a privately held $8 billion corporation that built a national surveillance architecture on public infrastructure, used city contracts as the foundation, and connected it to federal law enforcement without most cities' knowledge or consent.
Andreessen Horowitz – the same Silicon Valley firm that has made billions harvesting American data – put up the money to build it.
The Republican Party of Texas included an ALPR ban in its 2026 party platform.
Representatives Eric Burlison and Thomas Massie introduced the Flock-Off Act to cut federal funding from the expansion entirely.
And Hawley – who has now made Flock a signature issue – noted that the overwhelming majority of Americans captured in Flock's 20 billion monthly vehicle scans did absolutely nothing wrong.
Flock doesn't protect Americans from crime. It runs a database on all of them and waits.
The CEO who branded camera-mappers terrorists can't find the courage to sit in front of a Senate committee and defend what he built.
Hawley said it himself – the only thing standing between Flock's cameras and every American who drove to work this morning is Flock's own internal policies.
A company that silences researchers within 24 hours writes those policies.
Congress has one window to act before this network is too entrenched to break up.
Sources:
- "Flock CEO, Tech Rivals Called to Testify Before Senators Over AI Camera Privacy Concerns," Fox News, September 18, 2026.
- "Flock Cameras Spark Surveillance State Fears as Former Pentagon Official Warns of AI Tracking," Fox News, September 18, 2026.
- "Senate Hearing Examines Flock Camera Security Failures and Surveillance Concerns," Texas Scorecard, September 24, 2026.
- "Always Watching: Congress Begins Investigating Flock Cameras," The Daily Signal, September 24, 2026.
- "Hawley Launches Investigation into AI-Powered Flock Cameras as Privacy Concerns Arise," KCTV5 News, August 27, 2026.
