Hawley bill would restrict how police store and search Flock data
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Missouri U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley is moving from investigating Flock to proposing federal restrictions on how police and governments use automated license plate reader data.
Hawley will introduce the Stop Flock Abuse Act, which would set nationwide rules for Flock cameras and similar systems that collect vehicle locations.
You'll remember he first launched an investigation into Flock in August over how the company collects, stores and shares data.
He later expanded the investigation to other surveillance companies and chaired a Senate hearing last week. Executives from Flock, Axon, Motorola Solutions and Verkada declined invitations to testify.
Under Hawley's proposal, agencies would generally have to delete vehicle-location data within 10 days unless it is needed for an active criminal investigation.
Searches would require written authorization, and agencies would have to maintain audit logs showing who conducted each search, why it was performed, who approved it, and what information was viewed.
The bill would also require encryption and storage of data in the United States, prohibit local governments from selling or sharing vehicle-location data with nongovernment third parties, ban facial recognition from automated license plate reader networks, and prohibit systems using hardware or software from foreign adversaries.
Flock has already announced additional safeguards of its own, including reducing its default data-retention period from 30 days to seven days and requiring searches to be tied to case numbers.
The company also told Hawley's Senate panel it supports creation of a federal framework governing the technology.
Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe separately signed an executive order Sept. 16 setting state safeguards for automated license plate readers.
Kehoe's order generally requires deletion of data within 30 days and prohibits vendors from selling or commercializing Missouri-generated data.
Hawley's proposal would have to pass Congress and be signed into law before the federal requirements would take effect.
