Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.), a leading voice on the House Freedom Caucus and a longtime advocate for Fourth Amendment protections, renewed his campaign against Flock Safety’s automated license plate reader network on July 23, 2026, warning that the system has grown into a nationwide surveillance apparatus far beyond its stated purpose of fighting crime. In a post on X, Perry wrote in full: “Flock cameras now log approximately 20 BILLION vehicle scans every month. That’s not targeted policing of bad guys. That’s mass collection and surveillance – not safety. STOP THE FLOCK.”
A Warning Rooted in Scale
Perry’s post centers on a single, staggering figure: roughly 20 billion vehicle scans logged every month by Flock’s network of automated license plate readers. That number, first widely reported by NBC News, reflects the scale of a system that now spans more than 5,000 law enforcement agencies across the United States, according to Flock’s own disclosures to the office of Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. More than three-quarters of those agencies opt in to share data with Flock’s live national database, allowing departments in one state to view vehicle location data recorded in another without a warrant. Perry’s framing draws a sharp distinction between using the cameras to pursue specific suspects — which he says he supports — and using them to build a rolling, searchable record of where every driver goes.
Perry’s Long-Running Opposition to Flock
The July 23 post is the latest in a monthslong effort by Perry to curtail the cameras. Two weeks earlier, on July 7, 2026, Perry wrote on X that “Flock and Flock-like cameras track where law-abiding people go, who they visit, and how they live – all without a warrant,” adding that he had “attempted to stop this with an amendment, which unfortunately failed recently in Committee” and vowing “that’s not the end of this.” He called on constituents to “call your legislators,” closing with the same rallying cry he used in his July 23 post: “STOP THE FLOCK.”
The Failed Bipartisan Amendment
That amendment, offered with Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García (D-Ill.), would have barred state and local governments that receive federal highway funds from using automatic license plate readers for any purpose other than electronic toll collection — effectively cutting off a major funding stream for departments that use Flock cameras for broader tracking. The American Civil Liberties Union wrote in support of the measure, telling House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee leaders that at least 53 cities across 20 states had already terminated or rejected Flock contracts and warning that the FBI is separately preparing to spend $36 million on a nationwide license plate reader system capable of tracking any vehicle “in near real time.” The amendment was killed in committee without a floor debate.
A Fourth Amendment Caucus Founding Member
Perry’s objection to Flock is consistent with a record on surveillance issues that stretches back nearly a decade. As a founding member of the House’s Fourth Amendment Caucus, Perry joined Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, in introducing legislation to permanently end the National Security Agency’s practice of collecting Americans’ electronic communications that merely mention a foreign surveillance target, commonly known as “about” collection. At the time, Perry said the practice “has long been used as an end-around the Fourth Amendment.”
Opposing FISA Reauthorization
Perry has also been an outspoken opponent of reauthorizing Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act without added safeguards, arguing that the provision has been used for what he and other critics call “backdoor searches” of Americans’ communications without a warrant. Citing a 2022 transparency report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Perry and allied House Republicans have pointed to millions of warrantless searches conducted under Section 702 in a single year as evidence that reforms are overdue. Perry has said the goal is confidence that “American citizens want the confidence they don’t live in a police state.”
The “Kill Switch” Fight
Flock cameras are not the only surveillance-adjacent issue Perry has taken on this year. He has also pushed back against a federal vehicle “kill switch” mandate — a provision requiring new cars to include technology capable of detecting driver impairment and limiting or preventing operation. In a separate post on X, Perry wrote, “The Fourth Amendment isn’t a suggestion. No government should have the authority to remotely control a vehicle you paid for, or turn it into a tool for surveillance. It’s time to KILL THE KILL SWITCH.” He joined Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Keith Self, R-Texas, in supporting an amendment led by Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, to strip the mandate from federal law.
Local Backlash Mirrors Perry’s Warnings
Perry’s concerns track a broader wave of local resistance to Flock that has built throughout 2026. NBC News reported that at least eight cities and towns — including Austin, Texas; Sedona, Arizona; and Scarsdale, New York — canceled, paused or allowed their Flock contracts to lapse after organized protests from residents. In Sedona, retiree Sandy Boyce built a coalition of both conservative and progressive residents after learning the city had signed a Flock contract without broad public input; the City Council voted unanimously in September to end it. In Denver, records obtained by the Colorado ACLU showed the city’s Flock data had been accessed in more than 1,400 searches tied to immigration enforcement since 2024, fueling similar objections in a self-declared sanctuary city.
The Company’s Response
Flock Safety has defended its technology as a cost-effective tool for under-resourced police departments and notes that its default policy is to delete camera data after 30 days unless officers choose to download it. A company spokesperson has said the number of paused or canceled contracts nationwide is small compared with the nearly 800 U.S. cities that adopted Flock contracts in 2026 alone. Flock’s website states that its license plate reader technology “only captures vehicles, not biometric data or faces.” Company CEO Garrett Langley has said decisions about sharing local Flock data with federal agencies rest with local police departments, not with Flock itself, writing in a blog post, “it is a local decision. Not my decision, and not Flock’s decision.”
Perry’s District Reflects the National Divide
In Perry’s own south-central Pennsylvania district, the debate has played out publicly. Speaking to Harrisburg’s ABC27, Perry said, “The American people — their privacy is under assault. And this is just another invasion of it, which most people, A, don’t think about or B, don’t even know is happening.” He acknowledged the unusual company he has found himself keeping on the issue, noting he does not often align with the American Civil Liberties Union, but said, “we have constitutional rights, so we just have to make sure we use the very capable tools that are available to us to get the bad guy” rather than “constantly monitor everybody’s whereabouts.” In neighboring Franklin County, someone cut down a pole holding Flock cameras near a Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, Lowe’s store on July 4, 2026, and replaced it with an American flag — an incident Pennsylvania State Police are investigating.
Broader Congressional Scrutiny
Perry’s push comes as other members of Congress escalate their own scrutiny of the company. Wyden wrote to Flock’s CEO warning that the company had provided database access to Customs and Border Protection, Homeland Security Investigations, the Secret Service and the Navy’s Criminal Investigative Service, disclosing that CBP alone conducted roughly 200 searches of Flock’s database during a pilot program; Wyden said he now “must recommend that communities that have installed Flock cameras reevaluate that decision.” Reps. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., and Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., separately opened an investigation into reports that Flock data had been used to track people seeking abortion care across state lines and in unauthorized immigration enforcement operations. Krishnamoorthi and Wyden have also asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Flock’s cybersecurity practices after a breach exposed data from at least 35 customer accounts.
A Legislative Fight Perry Says Is Not Over
Despite the committee setback in May, Perry has continued to signal that he intends to keep pressing the issue. His office has not announced a new standalone bill focused solely on Flock as of this writing, but his repeated public statements — paired with his membership in the Fourth Amendment Caucus and his history of FISA and “kill switch” advocacy — indicate the fight is likely to resurface as Congress considers future transportation and surveillance-related legislation. For now, Perry’s message to constituents remains consistent with the one he has repeated across multiple posts this year: pressure lawmakers directly, and “STOP THE FLOCK.”
Background on the Technology
Flock Safety, founded in 2017, has grown into the country’s largest provider of automatic license plate readers, expanding beyond static cameras to include facial recognition tools, autonomous drones and audio gunshot detectors. Its Flock Alpha drone, capable of launching automatically in response to 911 calls or camera alerts, can read a license plate from as far as 2,000 feet away. Since 2021, roughly 82 Flock contracts have been canceled across 28 states, with 39 of those cancellations occurring in just the first five months of 2026, reflecting the accelerating pace of local pushback that has paralleled Perry’s congressional campaign against the network.