Donald Trump on Sunday backed Flock's license-plate surveillance cameras, telling reporters aboard Air Force One, "I like them." A reporter had asked whether he would back the automated license plate readers that police departments credit with cracking cases nationwide, Decrypt reported. The exchange came as he flew back from Ireland to Joint Base Andrews.
"Yeah, I sort of like them because of that, because of law enforcement," Trump said. He said "some people" consider the cameras "an infringement" on privacy, and after a reporter said Flock's network "helps catch a lot of criminals," he repeated, "I like them." Asked about Flock in August, he had said the administration was still weighing the "pros and cons" before taking a position.
Flock's fixed cameras photograph passing vehicles and use computer vision to log make, model, color and features such as bumper stickers and roof racks, and the company has installed more than 120,000 of them across more than 6,000 U.S. communities, Decrypt reported. Police say the searchable network helps recover stolen cars and locate missing people; critics say it also builds a movement log on people never suspected of a crime. The dispute deepened last month over an AI tool, uncovered by Wired, that Flock has been building to identify and track drivers without capturing a name or a license plate. First called Nightshift and now branded Flock OS Investigate, it carried 69 preset prompts, including one that flags a car's "associates" by checking which other vehicles appear at the same cameras within two minutes.
Sen. Josh Hawley, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism, opened an investigation into Flock's data practices in late August and later widened it to Motorola Solutions, Verkada and Axon, Decrypt reported. Sen. Bernie Sanders has pledged legislation to rein in the network, and Rep. Thomas Massie is pushing a bill to cut federal funding to agencies that deploy the cameras. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott ordered state agencies to halt Flock funding in late August, and the Los Angeles Police Department suspended its Flock contract in July over data-sharing and security concerns. The president's comments came days after a September 8 deadline Hawley set for Flock to turn over internal documents.
Figures referenced: Donald Trump. — JudgeMarket.
