The surveillance & liberty brief

Crow's Nest tracks license-plate readers, facial recognition, police surveillance and the wider civil-liberties beat, town by town. One free email each weekday morning, every line linked to the reporting it came from.

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Today's issue

New York passes license plate reader bill

Monday, October 26, 2026 · 21 stories · view as email

Top

New York lawmakers passed a bill to regulate private license plate readers.(Spectrum News)

New York lawmakers passed a bill requiring consumer protection officials to regulate private automated license plate readers, Spectrum News reports, while explicitly exempting police tracking networks.

ANALYSISNew York Passes Bill Regulating Private License Plate Readers but Exempts Police (Istituto Impariamo)

Flock Safety told Suffolk County its system can track interstate travel for abortion cases.(New York Post)

NYPD prepares a $750,500 sole-source deal for Cognyte cell-site simulators.(New York Daily News)

Hampshire police scanned 406,001 faces across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.(Daily Echo)

Google updated its privacy policy to allow Drive, Gmail and Photos ad targeting.(theverge.com)

Ontario plans consultations on optional digital photo cards.(www.theepochtimes.com)

The pattern

Three police departments launched or are launching drone as first responder programs.

WA Police launched a Drone as First Responder program in Perth's southern suburbs.(Mirage News)

Temple Police Department launched a drone as first responder program with three units.(Temple Daily Telegram)

Bellevue police are launching a first-responder drone program with two officers.(thewatchdogonline.com)

Flock watch

Simpsonville, South Carolina considers ordinance to ban automated license plate readers(FOX Carolina News)

Opry Mills shares license plate reader data with repossession firms(WSMV)

New Bedford will not renew Flock contract(WPRI.com)

Lee County sheriff nominee vows to end Flock Safety contract(Now Georgia)

Siloam Springs covered Flock surveillance cameras with black bags(KNWA FOX24)

Surveillance & Privacy

Sen. Ron Wyden gave CISA until 2026 to require Encrypted Client Hello on 350 federal sites.(TechRadar)

Twenty-two states and Puerto Rico offer mobile driver's licenses or digital IDs.(PYMNTS.com)

DHS OIG finds TSA contractor Idemia accessed traveler photos without agency knowledge.(sonsoflibertymedia.com)

Chicago plans a gunshot-detection pilot across six South and West Side wards.(abc7chicago.com)

Coming Up

Mon Oct 26

DeadlineWest Virginia — Flock Safety faces a deadline to provide the names of proposed witnesses to the House Government Organization Committee (WV News)

Mon Oct 26

Takes effectUganda — Uganda Revenue Authority continues rollout of biometric fingerprint scanners to link national IDs to tax records (biometricupdate.com)

Mon Oct 26

ExpiresRhode Island — Rhode Island's 60-day moratorium on the installation of new Flock license plate cameras is scheduled to end (WJAR)

Mon Oct 26

MeetingLibreville, Gabon — African Union Specialized Technical Committee on Communication and ICT meets to review digital identity framework and data governance (biometricupdate.com)

Mon Oct 26

MeetingSouthend, UK — Essex Police deploy Live Facial Recognition vans in Southend (Southend Echo)

Mon Oct 26

MeetingHartford, CT — Hartford City Council considers a $6.4 million police technology agreement with Axon for body cameras, drones, and Fusus (Patch)

Full calendar and .ics feed →

Speech & Press

Temple seeks to block records on a police drone crash into an 18-wheeler.(The Killeen Daily Herald)

Indonesia's Constitutional Court ruled soldiers must face civilian courts for civilian crimes.(cpj.org)

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier proposed a 2-hour daily teen social media cap.(Tallahassee Democrat)

Useful

S.T.O.P.(stopspying.org)

The Surveillance Technology Oversight Project: New York's watchdog on police tech, whose reports travel well to any city.

All the tools and guides →

Past issues

Fri, Oct 23

Met Police deploys live facial recognition

Thu, Oct 22

A New Mexico judge orders Meta…

Wed, Oct 21

Madison County drops Flock Safety contract

Tue, Oct 20

ACLU warns ICE could target activists

Mon, Oct 19

El Paso bars Flock license plate reader deals

Fri, Oct 16

Courts reject DOJ voter roll lawsuits

Thu, Oct 15

ICE plans contractor analyst program

Wed, Oct 14

Missouri sues Temu, alleging spyware code

Tue, Oct 13

Davidson County votes to bag Flock cameras

Mon, Oct 12

UK Border Force launched facial recognition

Every issue → · Each issue is the day's brief as it went to subscribers. The feed has everything we tracked that did not make the email.