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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Massachusetts and Wisconsin fusion centers…

Thursday, September 24, 2026 · 19 stories · view as email

Top

Massachusetts and Wisconsin fusion centers tracked activists using SparrowMap to log police vehicles.(Matthew Petti / reason.com)

Edison officials voted 6-1 to add about 90 Flock license plate readers.(News 12 - New Jersey)

St. Clair Shores pauses Flock cameras after the FBI accessed license plate data.(WXYZ 7 News Detroit)

California lawmakers passed AB 1883 to bar employers from using AI surveillance.(The National Law Review - A Free To Use Nationwide Database of Legal Publications)

Mumbai deploys AI surveillance cameras and drones along religious procession routes.(The Times of India)

Councils across England call for stricter regulation of live facial recognition technology.(The MJ)

Under the radar

Chattanooga police will ask the City Council to approve a $15 million contract.(Chattanooga Times Free Press)

Flock watch

Methuen, Massachusetts ends police use of Flock readers(Boston 25 News)

Horace, North Dakota votes 3-1 to remove Flock cameras(Valley News Live)

Illinois cuts off Flock data sharing with ICE(wandtv.com)

Lowell, Massachusetts votes 6-5 to suspend Flock surveillance cameras(Boston 25 News)

Tallahassee voted unanimously to draft surveillance rules(Tallahassee Democrat)

Surveillance & Privacy

A whistleblower alleges USCIS staff posed as Virginia voters to access records.(8News)

Pune Police will deploy over 3,500 CCTV cameras and facial recognition during Ganeshotsav.(Punekar News)

Representative Boebert warns police drones threaten Fourth Amendment privacy rights.(The Daily Caller)

The Secret Service operates a drone surveillance system adjacent to the White House.(Stamford Advocate)

Coming Up

Thu Sep 24

DeadlineLa Cañada Flintridge, CA — Deadline to submit resident questions about Flock cameras for the Public Safety Commission meeting agenda packet (outlooknewspapers.com)

Thu Sep 24

HearingTempe, AZ — Tempe City Council holds a first hearing on a proposed ordinance banning automated license plate readers (yourvalley.net)

Thu Sep 24

MeetingAlexandria, VA — Alexandria Police Department holds a community listening session on police surveillance technology and Flock license plate readers (The Alexandria Brief)

Thu Sep 24

MeetingTempe, AZ — Tempe City Council introduces an ordinance to ban automated license plate readers (AZfamily.com)

Thu Sep 24

TrialNew Scotland, NY — Laurie Moore appears in New Scotland Justice Court for charges of official misconduct and falsifying business records (Guessing Headlights)

Thu Sep 24

VoteCollege Station, Texas — College Station City Council decides whether to renew contract for 84 Flock automated license plate reader cameras (Community Impact Newspaper)

Full calendar and .ics feed →

Speech & Press

An Iowa court dismissed Donald Trump's lawsuit against pollster J. Ann Selzer.(reason.com)

UK announces a National Centre for Information Defence pairing intelligence agencies and social platforms.(bigbrotherwatch.org.uk)

LGBTQ student groups ask the Fifth Circuit to overturn campus drag show bans.(courthousenews.com)

Useful

Flock transparency portals(transparency.flocksafety.com)

Flock publishes a page per customer agency. It shows how long your city keeps plate reads and which outside agencies can search them.

All the tools and guides →

Past issues

Fri, Sep 25

India's Ministry of Home Affairs directed…

Wed, Sep 23

Carey bans ALPRs and facial recognition

Tue, Sep 22

Western Australia Police Force scanned…

Mon, Sep 21

Las Cruces adds Flock camera privacy rules

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.