WASHINGTON — The chief executives of four major surveillance technology companies declined to testify Wednesday before a Senate panel examining the privacy implications of automatic license plate readers, leaving lawmakers to question a slate of witnesses led by privacy advocates and a driver who says she was wrongfully accused.
The hearing, titled "Always Watching: Flock's Nationwide AI Surveillance Network," was convened by the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism at 2:30 p.m. ET in the Dirksen Senate Office Building.
Subcommittee Chairman Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) announced on Sept. 18 that he had invited the CEOs of Flock Safety, Axon, Motorola Solutions, and Verkada to testify. None of the four appeared on the final witness roster. The executives were invited, not subpoenaed, according to the Daily Caller News Foundation.
The invited executives were Flock Safety CEO Garrett Langley, Axon CEO Rick Smith, Motorola Solutions CEO Greg Brown, and Verkada CEO Filip Kaliszan, according to The Hill.
A Verkada spokesperson told reporters that Kaliszan was "unable to attend" and said the company is providing information to the subcommittee. "As we've explained to the Subcommittee, none of our customers can search a national Verkada network — because none exists," the spokesperson said. Flock, Axon, and Motorola Solutions did not immediately respond to requests for comment, The Hill reported.
Five witnesses testified in the CEOs' place: Chad Marlow, senior policy counsel at the ACLU; Benn Jordan, cybersecurity engineer; Lindsey Isaacs, described by the ACLU as a wrongfully accused driver; Alasdair Whitney, legislative counsel at the Institute for Justice; and Sheriff Ross Teeple of Pinal County.
The ACLU said Marlow would detail how automatic license plate readers are used to violate civil liberties and "underscore that the best privacy protection is to ban ALPRs altogether."
The Institute for Justice says it has cataloged more than 200 incidents of ALPR abuse nationwide, including stalking, wrongful stops and detentions, and non-law enforcement use. The ACLU said more than 200 cities have terminated contracts with Flock and other ALPR companies since the beginning of 2026 — a rate of more than three per day in August.
The hearing follows an investigation Hawley opened in August into Flock Safety's handling of Americans' data. In a letter to Langley, Hawley cited a Florida woman who spent 13 days in jail and faced eight felony counts, including three counts of vehicular homicide, over a Flock misidentification for a crime she did not commit, according to the Daily Caller News Foundation. The letter also cited a Milwaukee police officer who allegedly ran his girlfriend's license plate 124 times and her former boyfriend's 55 times — misconduct uncovered by a private citizen rather than Flock's audit system, the letter said. Hawley separately cited the St. Charles County Police Department, which terminated its Flock contract after an audit found an officer using the database for personal reasons.
The scrutiny has been bipartisan. Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) have sent similar letters to the company, according to TechPolicy.Press.
Hawley has said Flock operates more than 120,000 cameras across 49 states. The company says its customers control access to their data, that searches are auditable, and that safeguards are designed to identify potential misuse. Flock also stresses that its license plate recognition system does not perform facial recognition.
Editor's note: The National Correspondent Network has opened an investigation into Flock Safety's data practices (NCN-INV-2026-349).
- National Correspondent Network
