House Republicans are fast-tracking a crackdown on Flock surveillance cameras, taking the lead on the issue as “Squad” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) tried to seize on growing surveillance anxiety with her own bill.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said in Michigan this week that the House would take up legislation targeting the automated surveillance cameras during the lame-duck session after the November elections.
Johnson specifically mentioned a bill by Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) that would prohibit federal agencies from buying or accessing automated surveillance, although he attributed it to Rep. Tom Barrett (R-Mich.), a cosponsor of the effort who is in a tough re-election fight against William Lawrence, a former member of the Democratic Socialists of America.
The bill “will be processed in the lame duck right after the election, when everybody returns to town,” Johnson said, Michigan Advance reported.
A separate proposal from Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), a libertarian-leaning Republican who has become a frequent target of President Trump’s ire, would prohibit federal funds from being used for covered camera systems and give agencies 180 days to dismantle them.
AOC jumped on the headline-grabbing issue and released a bill last week with her lefty pal — Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) — that would seek to put restrictions on the controversial surveillance technology.
She squawked about surveillance at a town hall in Syracuse on a tour upstate that was seen as testing the waters for a possible 2028 presidential bid or Senate run.
“To me the idea that flock cameras even exist is unconscionable,” she said, before blasting dynamic pricing and surveillance methods at big box stores. Any flock legislation could face headwinds in a post-election House, particularly if Republicans lose the majority and face attendance issues, said one GOP source.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) has introduced his own flock camera legislation, and held an investigative hearing in late September, where he complained: “If you haven’t heard of Flock, all I have to say is Flock’s probably heard of you.”
“In fact, the truth is, you have probably been scanned and surveilled and tagged and logged multiple times this week alone, and that’s because Flock, by its own admission and its own statistics, maintains a network of 120,000 individual cameras in 49 states all across this country” that generate 20 billion images.
The company said it welcome guardrails and favors “strong policy, accountability and oversight mechanisms.”
