A senator says Flock Safety privately confirmed its cameras retain images of vehicle occupants and allow searches by person. Flock’s published policies say otherwise, and the private message has not been independently verified.
Your license plate may not be the only thing Flock Safety‘s cameras are cataloging, according to Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo. Hawley claims Flock privately acknowledged in a direct message that its cameras save images of people inside vehicles and that those images can be searched by person, not just by plate. Flock’s published policies flatly contradict that account, and the private message itself was not available for independent review.
What Hawley Claims
Hawley’s allegations rest on a private communication he says Flock sent him, though the message’s sender, date, and exact wording have not been independently confirmed.
Hawley says the private communication confirmed that Flock retains images in which vehicle occupants are visible. He also alleges, according to Fox News reporting, that the system can search vehicles using bumper stickers, including political ones, and even vehicle dents. Hawley characterizes the broader Flock network as a rapidly expanding mass-surveillance infrastructure, though that framing is a political assessment rather than a verified technical finding. A surveillance app targeting political identities has drawn similar concerns in other contexts.
Every piece of that characterization belongs to Hawley. None of it has been independently confirmed through the message itself or through technical documentation.
Here is what Flock’s public materials and an on-record executive say the system does and does not do:
- Flock states its cameras do not use facial recognition, a position confirmed by both company policy and a Flock executive named Terlecki in a recorded interview.
- Searches are based on vehicle characteristics, not personal identity, according to Flock’s trust and rights documentation.
- People may appear incidentally in captured frames, but Flock says the system is not designed to identify or search by individuals.
- Data retention defaults to seven days under current Flock policy, though the period varies by local law or contract; some documented deployments have run up to 30 days.
- Every search is tied to a specific user account and logged for audit review, per Flock’s published policy.
What the Evidence Actually Shows
Independent reporting confirms Flock’s cameras analyze vehicle attributes well beyond a license plate, but the most specific claims in Hawley’s account remain unverified.
Flock’s ALPR system captures more than plate numbers. According to CNET reporting, Flock’s machine-learning tools can classify vehicle color, body type, roof racks, paint condition, and visible cargo. Flock’s own technical materials also list bumper stickers among possible distinguishing vehicle features, though whether political text, specific symbols, or dents are reliably searchable fields is not independently confirmed outside Hawley’s account.
The phrase “searchable by people” sits at the center of this dispute, and it carries real ambiguity. It could mean facial recognition, which Flock explicitly denies, or it could describe vehicle-attribute searches that function as proxies for identity. Flock’s position is direct:
No. Flock cameras do not use facial recognition technology. Searches are based on vehicle characteristics, and not identity.
Flock Safety, company privacy and civil-liberties policy
Neither side has resolved this publicly. Until Hawley releases the private message or Flock addresses each allegation specifically, the dispute remains a senator’s account against a company’s denial. The practical question for anyone who drives past one of these cameras is where vehicle data ends and personal surveillance begins , a concern echoed by reports of apps secretly tracking users without their knowledge.
