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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Las Cruces adds Flock camera privacy rules

Monday, September 21, 2026 · 21 stories · view as email

Top

Las Cruces added privacy rules to its Flock surveillance camera contract.(Fort Worth Star-Telegram)

Las Cruces Adds Privacy Rules to Flock Surveillance Camera Contract (Las Cruces Sun-News)

Ada County deputies removed seven Axon license-plate cameras after Kuna's mayor complained.(East Idaho News)

A federal judge rejected a Justice Department lawsuit seeking Vermont voter registration data.(vtdigger.org)

An Irish EU draft would permit tech firms to train AI without consent.(noyb.eu)

London police deployed live facial recognition and 400 officers for a soccer match.(lbc.co.uk)

Ohio issued new rules governing when police may deploy drones without warrants.(DroneXL)

The pattern

Officials in three states accused Flock Safety of unauthorized marketing, secretly altering contracts, and contradictory sworn testimony.

Milford paused its license-plate readers after Flock used footage of its police chief.(greenwichtime.com)

A Florida sheriff accused Flock of removing a 30-day cancellation clause without notice.(WJHG)

West Virginia delegates threatened Flock Safety with subpoenas over conflicting verification testimony.(The Daily Signal)

Flock watch

Lake County, Indiana searched 19,000 cameras using joke reasons(Futurism)

Brown County, Wisconsin tracked trips to Michigan for drug charges(101 WIXX)

DeFlock maps 140,000 license-plate readers nationwide(bloodinthemachine.com)

Holyoke, Massachusetts restricts license-plate sharing over immigration searches(MassLive.com)

South Lyon, Michigan reviews canceling its Flock camera contract(michiganadvance.com)

Surveillance & Privacy

A federal appeals court upheld warrantless border searches of travelers' cell phones.(TheTravel)

Arizona gubernatorial candidate Andy Biggs backed installing surveillance cameras in public classrooms.(Medium.com)

A Taiwan man received a five-month sentence for robot vacuum surveillance.(Fast Company)

Mexico deactivated 1.9 million mobile phone lines for missing identity registration.(The Last American Vagabond)

Coming Up

Mon Sep 21

MeetingAtlanta, GA — Atlanta City Council introduces legislation establishing rules and oversight for public safety cameras and license plate readers (FOX 5 Atlanta)

Mon Sep 21

MeetingBeacon, NY — Beacon City Council hears from Police Chief Tom Figlia regarding agency use of license-plate readers (highlandscurrent.org)

Mon Sep 21

MeetingSt. Cloud, MN — St. Cloud City Council holds a study session on police use of Flock and automated license plate reader cameras (St. Cloud Live)

Tue Sep 22

HearingBernalillo County, NM — Preliminary hearing for Jevon Martinez on felony charges for dismantling Flock surveillance cameras (KOB.com)

Tue Sep 22

MeetingKosciusko County, IN — Kosciusko County Commission meets following county council motions to restrict Flock surveillance funding and development (ABC57)

Tue Sep 22

MeetingMonterey County, CA — Monterey County Board of Supervisors considers an agreement with Flock Safety for automated license plate readers (The King City Rustler)

Full calendar and .ics feed →

Speech & Press

California authorized regulators to fine influencers up to $5,000 for undisclosed political posts.(electionlawblog.org)

The Arizona Supreme Court barred courts from deferring to agencies on public records.(goldwaterinstitute.org)

Professors sued Texas university systems over restrictions on race and gender instruction.(The College Fix)

Useful

Street-Level Surveillance(sls.eff.org)

EFF's explainers on each police technology: what an ALPR, a drone, a cell-site simulator or a face recognition system actually does with your data.

All the tools and guides →

Past issues

Fri, Sep 25

India's Ministry of Home Affairs directed…

Thu, Sep 24

Massachusetts and Wisconsin fusion centers…

Wed, Sep 23

Carey bans ALPRs and facial recognition

Tue, Sep 22

Western Australia Police Force scanned…

Fri, Sep 18

LiveView and Axon let police stream cameras

Thu, Sep 17

El Paso votes to remove Flock cameras

Wed, Sep 16

Hackers dump Flock camera data

Tue, Sep 15

Flock Safety gave feds Boston ALPR data

Mon, Sep 14

Minnesota jurisdictions drop Flock cameras

Fri, Sep 11

Tempe proposes license plate reader ban

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