Full transcript
A tech company that helps police solve
crimes using automatic license plate
readers like these is now being accused
by one state of breaking the law by
giving surveillance data to US Customs
and Border Protection.
We are dealing with powerful
surveillance technology and it has been
abused which is extremely troubling
especially as it violates the law. Under
a new law in Illinois, once a private
company like Flock shares license plate
data with law enforcement, it becomes a
legally defined user and it's illegal
for any user to share data for
immigration enforcement or reproductive
health investigations. After media
reports raised concerns, the Secretary
of State's office launched a sample
audit reviewing search records from a
dozen local agencies using Flock
systems. As a result of the audit late
last week, we discovered that Flock did
not have proper safeguards in place for
data sharing.
To be honest, it was a surprise when he
came out with that uh message yesterday
and the way that he did because
literally that morning we were on a Zoom
call with their office talking about
these things and I thought that we were
all working together to try to solve the
problem um not to cast blame. Flock says
it's paused all federal access
nationwide, will provide more training,
and now flags federal requests with
reminders about state law compliance.
But the company says it's the local
agencies, not Flock, who decide who gets
access.
At the end of the day, our customers own
the data, not Flock. They decide with
whom they want to share, not Flock. And
um it is not Flock's job to police the
police. That is not our job, a private
company, to be the regulators of um this
industry. This is why we rely on our
elected officials. The clash raises a
critical question. Who's responsible
when powerful surveillance tech is
misused? There's much more to this
story. We read more at govk.com.