FBI Director Defends Flock Camera Use Amid Privacy Concerns

During a Senate Judiciary hearing this week, Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) raised concerns over the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) use of data from Flock cameras.

Sen. Cornyn highlighted the current public anxiety surrounding advanced technology, including recent AI doomsday warnings and the effects of data centers on local communities. The misuse of the AI-powered license plate readers is also now a source of anxiety, he said.

“Public officials have a responsibility to tell the truth, to try to correct misperceptions about technology,” Sen. Cornyn said. “There seems to also be a recent rush to judgment when it has come to automated license plate readers, or so-called Flock cameras.”

In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott (R) issued an order blocking state agencies from spending money on Flock cameras earlier this month after scrutiny mounted over the state’s funding and use of the surveillance technology.

However, FBI Director Kash Patel reassured the Texas senator that only private companies are the only ones that have access to this information on a rolling basis.

“Where the FBI partners with these individuals is on a case-by-case basis and not a rolling access basis,” Patel added.

Patel said this information has helped the FBI with several investigations, including the shooting at Brown University last year. Patel said the university did not have high-quality cameras, but Flock cameras were located in the neighboring areas.

“We weren't able to get any facial recognition on the individual, but what we were able to get, based on Flock cameras, was a license plate,” he said.

Patel said some of the FBI’s “best work” has come from using these cameras. He said it has consistently helped the agency prosecute child predators, traffickers and violent offenders.

“We have to use it lawfully, but we, the FBI, don't continue to access that on a rolling basis,” he reassured the Senate committee.