A cop in Florida used a license plate reader to track his ex-girlfriend more than 2,000 times in eleven months.
That case is now at the center of a Senate investigation – and Flock Safety was just the beginning.
Now Josh Hawley is coming for the whole industry.
Hawley Puts Motorola Solutions Verkada and Axon Under Senate Scrutiny
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., sent formal investigation letters to the chief executives of Motorola Solutions, Verkada, and Axon Enterprise – three of the largest AI-powered surveillance companies operating camera networks across America.
The letters give each company until September 16 to produce documents and answers.
Hawley chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism, and he's been building this case since August 26, when he first put Flock Safety in his sights.
Flock operates roughly 120,000 cameras in 49 states, scanning more than 20 billion vehicles every month.
Motorola runs the second-largest network in the country – controlling about 5% of the 138,000 known automated license plate reader cameras nationwide.
Hawley's message to all three companies was blunt: "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."
License Plate Reader Abuse Cases That Triggered the Senate Investigation
The documented abuse of these systems reads like a law enforcement scandal sheet.
Officer Sergio Rodriguez was fired and indicted for using a Flock system to track his ex-partner more than 2,000 times over eleven months.
Former Deputy Jaquarius Yarbrough was arrested for using the same technology to track a woman he'd been having an affair with 1,639 times.
Five Albany, Georgia police officers were arrested and fired for misusing Flock data.
Detective Kyle Rector was charged with multiple crimes in March 2026 after allegedly using license plate readers to track his estranged wife and two men he suspected were her new partners.
That's not a few bad apples – that's a pattern.
Hawley's letter demanded answers on how broadly customers can search vehicle data, how long they retain license plate information, how many confirmed misuse cases have occurred since 2021, and what safeguards require officers to provide legitimate justification before running a search.
Axon responded that it had reached out to Hawley's office and welcomed the chance to demonstrate its commitment to responsible innovation.
Motorola and Verkada had not responded publicly.
DeSantis and Abbott Cut Flock Safety Cameras Before Hawley Moved
Republican governors didn't wait for the Senate to move.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ordered the removal of all license plate reader cameras from Florida state roads.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott ordered every state agency to stop spending state money on Flock Safety cameras.
Communities across the country followed – canceling contracts and demanding answers their city councils had never thought to ask before.
Hawley is now taking that fight to Washington.
His investigation is the right call, and it's overdue.
Warrantless Tracking With No Data Retention Limits and No Answers
The political Left wants to frame this as a shared cause – socialist organizers, pro-China-funded agitators, and ACLU lawyers all working the same camera-removal circuit for their own reasons.
The convergence is not what it looks like.
Their goal is defunding police and blocking immigration enforcement.
Hawley's goal is protecting the Fourth Amendment rights of law-abiding Americans who never agreed to be tracked every time they drive to church, drop their kids at school, or visit a doctor.
There is no warrant requirement for these searches.
Law enforcement agencies across the country can query a driver's location history with no notification to that driver and no judicial oversight.
Under current rules, that data sits in a corporate database indefinitely – accessible to thousands of agencies across state lines.
Hawley asked each company exactly how long that data is kept.
None of them have answered yet.
The September 16 deadline will tell a lot about whether these companies believe they owe Americans any answers at all.
Sources:
- Preston Mizell, "Three New Companies Face Josh Hawley's Investigation into AI Surveillance and Vehicle Tracking," Fox News, September 3, 2026.
- "Hawley Expands Investigation into Surveillance Cameras, Warns Flock Competitors," Josh Hawley Senate Office, September 3, 2026.
- "Police Have Reportedly Used License Plate Readers to Stalk Romantic Interests Dozens of Times in Recent Years," Institute for Justice, April 27, 2026.
- "Worse Than Flock: Josh Hawley Expands 'Unprecedented National Surveillance' Investigation," The Blaze, September 4, 2026.
