An innocent Florida woman sat in a jail cell for 13 days facing murder charges she had nothing to do with.
The only evidence against her came from a Flock Safety AI surveillance camera.
Now Senator Josh Hawley is hauling those camera companies before Congress – and one CEO just made his move.
Flock Safety License Plate Cameras Named Her a Killer and Nobody Checked Twice
Police in Florida put an innocent woman behind bars for 13 days on eight felony counts – three of them for vehicular homicide – for a crime she never committed, according to Senator Josh Hawley's letter to Flock CEO Garrett Langley.
A Flock Safety camera was the only evidence that put her there.
That case is not the exception.
It is the pattern.
The Institute for Justice has cataloged more than 200 documented cases of Flock camera abuse and error – romantic stalking, wrongful detentions, and innocent Americans held at gunpoint over misread license plates.
In Sherwood, Arkansas, a Flock camera misread a license plate and officers detained an innocent couple at gunpoint while their six-week-old baby sat alone in a car seat.
In Milwaukee, prosecutors charged a police officer after his department's Flock records showed he had searched his girlfriend's license plate 124 times and her ex-boyfriend's plate 55 times.
Flock's own audit system never flagged it.
A private citizen caught him.
Motorola Solutions and its subsidiary Vigilant Solutions are fighting a class-action lawsuit in California after their surveillance data was allegedly shared with out-of-state agencies without the legally required consent.
A hacker who bypassed Verkada's security in March 2021 gained access to over 150,000 cameras worldwide – capturing real-time footage inside psychiatric hospitals, women's health clinics, prisons, and elementary schools.
That is the network these companies are asking America to trust.
DeSantis Banned Flock Cameras from Florida Highways While Congress Has No Law Against Mass Surveillance
Flock Safety alone operates roughly 120,000 AI surveillance cameras across the United States – photographing passing vehicles, logging locations, and sharing that data with law enforcement agencies in other states, all without a warrant.
Every camera fingerprints vehicles by make, model, color, and distinctive markings, feeding the data into a national database any Flock-contracted law enforcement agency can search.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis had seen enough.
He ordered all Flock cameras removed from state roads, calling the rapid expansion of the technology a growing "digital AI surveillance state."
"If you want to get in your car and you want to go down to Buc-ee's in St. Augustine, it's really none of the government's damn business if you're doing that, right?" DeSantis told Fox Business.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott froze all state funding for Flock cameras.
The Institute for Justice reports that more than 100 local governments have canceled or refused to renew Flock contracts in the past year.
Senator Josh Hawley is now bringing the reckoning to Capitol Hill.
His Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism scheduled a September 23 hearing titled "Always Watching: Flock's Nationwide AI Surveillance Network" – calling the CEOs of Flock Safety, Axon Enterprise, Motorola Solutions, and Verkada to answer for what their cameras have done to ordinary Americans.
Hawley invited those CEOs – but did not subpoena them.
Verkada's CEO already declined.
"Americans do not surrender their privacy rights when they drive to work, drop their kids off at school, or go to church," Hawley told Fox News.
Verkada's CEO clearly disagrees – and chose not to say it to Hawley's face.
Not a single member of Congress has introduced a bill to outright ban these cameras nationwide.
Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee introduced the "Protection Against Mass Surveillance Act" to stop federal agencies from purchasing them.
Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky introduced legislation to cut federal funding from local police departments still using them.
Neither bill has become law.
This is how surveillance companies stay untouchable.
They build the network quietly, defend it with lobbyists, and duck congressional scrutiny.
One hundred twenty thousand cameras are logging vehicle movements right now without a warrant, two Republican governors have ripped them down, and one of the CEOs Hawley summoned to explain himself just decided he does not owe Congress a word.
Hawley can invite them to the table.
That gap between invitation and subpoena is exactly where Big Tech hides – and Congress has let it stay open long enough.
Sources:
- Josh Hawley Senate Office, "Chairman Hawley Invites CEOs of Flock, Competitors to Testify Next Week," hawley.senate.gov, September 18, 2026.
- Nicole Silverio, "Josh Hawley Asks Surveillance CEOs to Testify as Industry Faces Heat Over Privacy," The Daily Caller, September 18, 2026.
- "Flock Safety CEO Called to Testify Before Senate on AI Surveillance," Fox News, September 17, 2026.
- "Florida Bans Flock Safety Cameras from State Roads Over Privacy Fears," Fox Business, September 1, 2026.
- "Dozens of Innocent Motorists Have Been Pulled Over, Detained at Gunpoint, or Jailed Due to AI License Plate Camera Errors," Institute for Justice, July 27, 2026.