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{"id":27385,"date":"2026-10-02T14:49:40","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T14:49:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/sanders-aoc-merkley-propose-bill-to-ban-flock-cameras\/"},"modified":"2026-10-02T14:49:40","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T14:49:40","slug":"sanders-aoc-merkley-propose-bill-to-ban-flock-cameras","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/sanders-aoc-merkley-propose-bill-to-ban-flock-cameras\/","title":{"rendered":"Sanders, AOC, Merkley propose bill to ban Flock cameras"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>Rep. <a href=\"https:\/\/directory.politicopro.com\/member\/304452\" data-person-id=\"304452\">Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez<\/a> (D-N.Y.) and Sens. <a href=\"https:\/\/directory.politicopro.com\/member\/51605\" data-person-id=\"51605\">Bernie Sanders<\/a> (I-Vt.) and <a href=\"https:\/\/directory.politicopro.com\/member\/66836\" data-person-id=\"66836\">Jeff Merkley<\/a> (D-Ore.) on Friday released text of legislation intended to ban the use of Flock surveillance cameras and other license plate readers.<\/p>\n<p>Flock has faced severe public backlash against the surveillance technology following reports that police officers misused the technology to track women, and it has the largest network of license plate readers across the U.S. Sens. <a href=\"https:\/\/directory.politicopro.com\/member\/307631\" data-person-id=\"307631\">Josh Hawley<\/a> (R-Mo.) and <a href=\"https:\/\/directory.politicopro.com\/member\/51180\" data-person-id=\"51180\">Dick Durbin<\/a> (D-Ill.) hosted a hearing last month probing its potential misuses, although the company\u2019s CEO Garrett Langley did not appear.<\/p>\n<p>The latest bill, unveiled Friday and named the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sanders.senate.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/Ban-Flock-Act.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Ban Flock Act<\/a>, would bar federal agencies from using automated license plate readers or accessing data from the technology and prevent federal grants from funding states and local governments that use automated license plate readers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt a time of growing concern about the unchecked power of artificial intelligence, Flock is eviscerating the very notion of privacy by installing tens of thousands of cameras in communities across America without their consent,\u201d Sanders, who has positioned himself as a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/09\/03\/someone-has-to-go-out-on-a-limb-what-to-know-about-bernie-sanders-newest-ai-pitch-01064424\" target=\"_blank\">leading progressive voice<\/a> on AI technology, said in a statement. \u201cWe cannot allow America to become a surveillance state where a handful of AI oligarchs profit by giving the government the power to track our every movement.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ocasio-Cortez similarly condemned the surveillance capabilities of the technology and said the bill would \u201cenforce our constitutional right to privacy and protect Americans from both corporate and government surveillance.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo one should have this unchecked surveillance power at their fingertips,\u201d Merkley added.<\/p>\n<p>Republicans have introduced similar efforts to regulate license plate readers, such as Hawley\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hawley.senate.gov\/hawley-to-introduce-stop-flock-abuse-act-establishing-safeguards-for-ai-powered-cameras\/\" target=\"_blank\">Stop Flock Abuse Act<\/a>, which would require audits and limits on unauthorized searches.<\/p>\n<p>Flock did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) on Friday released text of legislation intended to ban the use of Flock surveillance cameras and other license plate readers. Flock has faced severe public backlash against the surveillance technology following reports that police officers misused the technology to track women, and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27385\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}