Politics

Josh Hawley Asks Surveillance CEOs To Testify As Industry Faces Heat Over Privacy

Sen. Josh Hawley (Screenshot/X/@HawleyMO)

Republican Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley announced Friday that he invited technology CEOs to testify before Congress about mass surveillance concerns relating to Automated License Plate Readers (ALPRs).

Hawley opened an investigation into Flock Safety cameras and their access to Americans’ data, highlighting several incidents where Americans were falsely accused of crimes after Flock cameras processed their information. Hawley asked Flock CEO Garrett Langley and the CEOs of Axon Enterprise, Motorola Solutions and Verkada to testify about their products’ access to Americans’ data during a Wednesday hearing before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism, but weren’t subpoenaed to attend.

“I’ve invited the CEOs of Flock Safety, Axon, Motorola and Verkada to testify in front of my committee NEXT WEEK. Americans deserve answers,” Hawley said Friday.

A Verkada spokesperson told the Daily Caller News Foundation they were “unable” to attend the upcoming hearing.

“Unfortunately, our CEO is unable to attend next week’s hearing. We are in communication with the Subcommittee and are providing information to assist Chairman Hawley and Ranking Member Durbin as they prepare for the hearing. 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 spokesperson said.

A Flock camera in Florida collected information about a resident who spent 13 days in jail and faced eight felony counts, including three counts of vehicular homicide, for a crime she did not commit, according to Hawley’s letter to Langley in August.

In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, prosecutors charged a police officer who allegedly searched his girlfriend’s license plate 124 times and her former boyfriend’s plate 55 times, and was later caught by a private citizen instead of Flock’s audit system, according to Hawley’s letter.

An innocent driver in Wisconsin was held at gunpoint in August after a camera made a mistake.

Motorola Solutions and its subsidiary, Vigilant Solutions, were slapped with a massive class-action lawsuit that accused the companies of violating California’s strict privacy laws related to vehicle-tracking data. The suit alleged that the data collected by its automated surveillance technologies was illegally shared with out-of-state law enforcement and federal immigration agencies without proper consent or oversight safeguards.

An international hacker bypassed Verkada’s security by finding “super admin” credentials left exposed online, allowing hackers to gain access to over 150,000 Verkada cameras worldwide in March 2021. The hackers viewed real-time footage inside psychiatric hospitals, women’s health clinics, prisons and elementary schools.

Flock, Motorola Solutions and Axon Enterprise did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment on whether the CEOs intended to testify.

Not a single lawmaker in Congress introduced a bill to outright ban Flock cameras and other ALPRs. Republican Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna said in July she was working on legislation to ban Flock Safety cameras, although the bill has yet to be introduced.

Republican Tennessee Rep. Tim Burchett introduced the “Protection Against Mass Surveillance Act” in July to ban federal agencies from purchasing or operating Flock cameras or any form of automated surveillance that “identify, track, or record individuals.” Republican Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie introduced legislation to withhold federal funds from local municipalities and police departments using Flock and ALPRs.