U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (MI-12) introduced the Get the Flock Out of Our Communities Act today with community leaders in front of a Flock camera in Inkster, Michigan, whose city officials just signed a long-term contract with the mass surveillance company. The bill would prohibit the use of federal funds to purchase or operate any automated mass surveillance systems, including automatic license plate readers like Flock. It would also require state and local governments to divest from such systems to remain eligible for certain federal law enforcement grants.
It is the only bill in Congress designed to completely prohibit the use of automated mass surveillance technology, including biometric surveillance systems and facial recognition technology.
“The mass surveillance crisis is not a dystopian fantasy—it is already here. Our children and neighbors cannot go to the park, drive down the street, go to work, or exercise their Constitutional rights without their privacy being breached,” said Rep. Tlaib. “Flock’s technology isn’t making us safer. Instead it has been used to stalk people, mis-identify and arrest innocent people, surveil protestors, and wrongfully record our neighbors. My bill would prevent our government on all levels from selling us out to Big Tech companies that trample our civil rights for profit.”
Over 200 cities and counties, including Westland and Lincoln Park in Michigan, have cancelled their Flock contracts due to resident outrage. According to Data for Progress, a majority of voters — 52% — view Flock unfavorably, a sentiment that continues to grow as Flock and its abuses become more widespread.
“People everywhere are starting to recognize that conflating surveillance with safety makes communities less safe,” said Tawana Petty, digital and data justice organizer from Detroit. “The persistent abuse of Flock cameras and other surveillance systems by law enforcement agencies across the United States, and the lack of transparency by the companies that market them has caused an awakening among residents and city government agencies who are ridding themselves of the technologies. The Get the Flock Out of Our Communities Act is responsive to the national call to protect all neighbors from being stalked and harmed by reckless actors and opportunistic corporations.”
“The spread of mass surveillance systems is an existential threat to political and personal freedom,” said Jibran Ludwig, Legislative Strategist at Fight for the Future. “We have seen the current administration weaponize these tools to terrorize immigrant communities and protestors, while simultaneously forcing every single person into dragnet surveillance that puts us all in danger. But the threat goes far beyond our current political moment: the history of mass surveillance is an endless litany of abuse at every level. This bill is an urgent effort to uproot the mass surveillance systems which have been built up from the local level and down from the federal.”
“Indivisible is proud to endorse the Get the Flock Out of Our Communities Act. These automated mass surveillance systems don’t just violate our fundamental rights to privacy and civil liberties – they fuel Big Tech’s broader efforts to harvest as much of our personal information as possible so they can bleed our bank accounts dry and monopolize markets,” said Andrew O’Neill, National Advocacy Director of Indivisible. “We’ve also witnessed Republicans increasingly weaponize warrantless mass surveillance as a fascist tool for political gain and to help their donors profit off massive amounts of our stolen data. This isn’t new, and it has nothing to do with safety or justice: the first surveillance laws in the U.S. passed in 1712 targeted Black, mixed-race, and Indigenous people, weaponizing public safety to enforce white supremacy. Ever since, surveillance systems and increasingly sophisticated technologies have been intentionally and disproportionately deployed in predominantly Black and low-income communities. It’s more urgent than ever that Congress protect our communities from these attacks.”
The Get the Flock Out of Our Communities Act comprehensively removes automated mass surveillance systems and similar technologies by:
- Prohibiting federal funds being used by federal, state, or local government entities to purchase, deploy, install, maintain, access, lease, or operate any automated mass surveillance system, including automated license plate readers like Flock, biometric surveillance systems, and facial recognition technology.
- Prohibiting the federal government or any employee or officer of an agency acting in an official capacity from using any automated mass surveillance systems or information derived from such systems.
- Requiring the removal of any automated mass surveillance system deployed or operated with federal funding.
- Requiring any unit of government in possession of data generated by federally-funded automated mass surveillance systems to permanently delete that data.
- Rendering data obtained in violation of the Act’s provisions inadmissible in court.
- Requiring state and local governments applying for certain federal law enforcement funding to certify that they do not operate or access automated mass surveillance networks.
The Get the Flock Out of Our Communities Act is cosponsored by 6 members of Congress: U.S. Reps. Sylvia Garcia (TX-29), Summer Lee (PA-12), Ilhan Omar (MN-05), Delia C. Ramirez (IL-03), Nydia Velázquez (NY-07), and Bonnie Watson Coleman (NJ-12).
The Get the Flock Out of Our Communities Act is endorsed by 50 organizations:
African Human Rights Coalition, American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), Arab American Heritage Council (AAHC), Arkansas Community Organizations, Asian American Advocacy Fund, Center for Constitutional Rights, Center for Progressive Reform, Demand Progress, Democratic Socialists of America, Detroit Justice Center, Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), Fight for the Future, Flint Alliance for Immigrant Rights, Freedom for Immigrants, Freedom of the Press Foundation, Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees (GCIR), Immigrant Defenders Law Center (ImmDef), Immigrant Guide, Immigration Justice Action Team – Indivisible Mass Coalition, Immigrant Legal Resource Center (ILRC), Indivisible, Indivisible Marin, Justice Is Global, Kino Border Initiative, Latin America Working Group (LAWG), LGBT Detroit, Louisiana Advocates for Immigrants in Detention, Metro Detroit DSA, Miami Valley Immigration Coalition, Migrant Support Collective, Minnesota 8, MPower Change Action Fund, Muslims for Just Futures, National Asian Pacific American Women’ Forum, National Immigrant Justice Center, NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice, Never Again Action, New Disabled South Rising, Nicaraguan American Legal Defense and Education Fund (NALDEF), No Detention Centers in Michigan, NorCal Resist, Oasis Legal Services, Organized Communities Against Deportations, Partnership for the Advancement of New Americans (PANA), Refugee Support Network, Southern NH Indivisible, TRUST SD Coalition, We are CASA, Western Massachusetts Immigration Legislative Advocacy Network, X-Lab
