FIRST ON FOX: The CEOs of four companies, including Flock Safety, are being called to testify before a Senate panel next week as lawmakers look to crack down on AI-powered surveillance camera tracking Americans’ movements, Fox News Digital has learned.
A number of lawmakers and several governors have called for investigations into alleged privacy violations regarding the handling of images and data generated by AI-backed surveillance cameras.
The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism will hold a hearing titled “Always Watching: Flock’s Nationwide AI Surveillance Network” on Sept. 23.
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“Americans do not surrender their privacy rights when they drive to work, drop their kids off at school, or go to church,” subcommittee Chairman Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., told Fox News Digital in a statement. “I’m investigating these companies to determine WHO has access to hundreds of millions of Americans’ data – and what they’re doing with it.”
Garrett Langley, CEO of Flock Safety, Rick Smith, CEO of Axon Enterprise Inc., Greg Brown, CEO of Motorola Solutions, and Filip Kaliszan, CEO of Verkada, have all been invited to testify before the committee.
A spokesperson from Verkada told Fox News Digital that Kaliszan is unable to attend the hearing, but that the company is providing Hawley and the subcommittee with information ahead of next Wednesday.
“As we’ve explained to the Subcommittee, none of our customers can search a national Verkada network – because none exists. Our customers can only access the data in their own systems,” the Verkada spokesperson said.
Fox News Digital reached out to the other three companies invited to testify.
AI-powered surveillance cameras have been heavily scrutinized by lawmakers over concerns that the cameras track individuals’ movements without reason, regardless of whether a crime is being committed.
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A number of politicians have taken action against the devices, with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ordering the removal of all license plate reader cameras from Florida state roads and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott ordering all state agencies to stop spending state money on Flock Safety cameras.
Flock Safety cameras, along with other similar brands and technology, use artificial intelligence to automatically track and identify vehicles and license plates for local law enforcement use. Nationwide concern has grown about whether the AI-backed system should be allowed to track the movement of vehicles without a warrant or the consent of drivers.
A total of about 120,000 Flock Safety cameras are operating in the U.S. in every state except Alaska.
Opposition to Flock Safety cameras has created an unlikely political overlap, with Republicans and far-left activists criticizing the technology for very different reasons. Republican lawmakers have largely centered their objections on privacy rights, government overreach and warrantless surveillance, while socialist and communist organizers have incorporated the cameras into broader campaigns opposing artificial intelligence, law enforcement, immigration enforcement, data center development and what they describe as an emerging “police state” or “AI surveillance state.”
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President Donald Trump told reporters on Monday that he supports the idea of Flock Safety cameras “because of law enforcement” and the aid AI-powered cameras provide to police and local law enforcement.
Over the last year, several far-left organizations tied to a network funded by Shanghai-based tech businessman Neville Roy Singham have organized local opposition to Flock Safety cameras while simultaneously campaigning against new data center projects. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump and other Republican leaders have continued to champion data center construction as part of the administration’s broader technology and infrastructure agenda.
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The Party for Socialism and Liberation’s Denver chapter teamed up with Indivisible and the far-left Sunrise Movement in May to promote a public forum focused on the alleged link between data centers and mass surveillance, contending that both exist to serve billionaires instead of everyday communities.
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The Party for Socialism and Liberation’s Tucson chapter joined “deFLOCK Tucson” and the “No Desert Data Center Coalition” on July 25 for a gathering dubbed “It’s ALL Connected,” held at the Global Justice Center on E. 26th Street.
Event advertisements posed a question about what mass surveillance, data centers and electricity have in common, responding with a single message: “IT’S ALL CONNECTED.”
