Crow's Nest
Friday, October 2, 2026 · The digital civil-liberties brief · View on the web
West Yorkshire Police deployed live facial recognition vans in Bradford shopping districts.
The BBC reports Bradford police are scanning pedestrians in real time against a watchlist using roof-mounted cameras, expanding public surveillance into shopping districts. (BBC)
Top
- Montgomery County terminated its Flock automated license plate reader program. (WDBJ7)
- A Florida county discovered Flock surveillance cameras with no obvious owner. (Newsmax)
- USPS partnered with Next Base to put dashcams on 100 delivery trucks. (404media.co)
- Red Deer RCMP launched a remote Drone as First Responder surveillance program. (Red Deer Advocate)
- Denton police and fire launched a Drone as First Responder pilot program. (Cross Timbers Gazette)
The pattern
Police in three jurisdictions authorized or moved to deploy live facial recognition in public spaces.
- Italy authorized police to use real-time facial recognition in public spaces. (biometricupdate.com)
- Cambridgeshire Police deployed live facial recognition cameras to scan crowds in Cambridge. (Cambridge News)
- Ahmedabad City Police deployed AI cameras and facial recognition at festival venues. (GujaratSamachar English)
The pattern
Four reports detailed police misusing license-plate reader systems or evading search justification rules.
- At least 100 police employees were accused of misusing Flock ALPRs. (themercury.com)
- Wareham police logged 49 license plate reader searches without providing reasons. (Wareham, MA News)
- Police entered 'investigation' 111 times to bypass Flock Safety camera safeguards. (www.theepochtimes.com)
- St. Louis County ordered an audit of license plate readers on roads. (St. Louis American)
Flock watch
- St. Lucie County found 14 unpermitted Flock cameras on public roads. (arstechnica.com)
- Norwell ordered Flock Safety to remove two cameras and destroy data. (Hoodline)
- St. Lucie County found 14 unauthorized Flock license-plate readers on roads. (The Independent)
- Norwell rescinded its contract with Flock Safety and ordered data destroyed. (WCVB)
- Brunswick County commissioners voted to freeze Flock license plate reader purchases. (The State Port Pilot)
Surveillance & Privacy
- A federal judge dismissed a DOJ lawsuit seeking unredacted Georgia voter rolls. (georgiarecorder.com)
- EFF and the ACLU demanded Marin County Sheriff records over license plate shares. (eff.org)
- Expanding federal surveillance prompts communities to self-police, lowering turnout for citizenship classes. (Medium.com)
- The Trump administration launched an America.gov chatbot powered by Gemini and Grok. (huffpost.com)
Coming Up
Fri Oct 2 · TAKES EFFECT · Cambridge, England — Cambridgeshire Police deploys live facial recognition technology in Cambridge (Cambridge News)
Fri Oct 2 · TAKES EFFECT · Alexandria, VA — Park + Ford launches an automated license plate reader system in its parking garage (The Alexandria Brief)
Fri Oct 2 · EXPIRES · Toppenish, Washington — City of Toppenish's contract for Flock license plate reader cameras expires (Sunnyside Sun)
Fri Oct 2 · EXPIRES · Kendall County, TX — Kendall County's contract with Flock Safety effectively ends (MySA)
Fri Oct 2 · TRIAL · Santa Fe, New Mexico — Trial in New Mexico's data privacy lawsuit against Meta over Cambridge Analytica is scheduled to conclude (KRQE 13)
Mon Oct 5 · DEADLINE · Charlotte, NC — Bids close for Charlotte's request for proposals for an automatic license plate reader vendor (Hoodline)
Speech & Press
- A judge rejected Trump privilege claims over a lethal boat strike memo. (The Hill)
- Judge Terry Moorer ordered the release of body camera footage from Mobile police. (fox10tv.com)
- DOJ sued Maryland over a state ban on masked federal agents. (FOX 5 DC)
Useful
Atlas of Surveillance — EFF's searchable record of which surveillance technologies each police department has bought, by city and agency.
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