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

FinCEN withdrew two rules on Oct. 5…

Tuesday, October 6, 2026 · 22 stories · view as email

Top

FinCEN withdrew two rules targeting crypto mixers and self-custody wallets.(Prathi Kalpa / Cryip)

FinCEN announced it is dropping proposed Patriot Act rules that would have forced financial institutions to monitor and report customer transactions involving crypto mixers and self-custody wallets, citing public pushback over the burden on legitimate financial privacy.

FinCEN Withdraws Proposed Crypto Surveillance Rules Targeting Mixers and Wallets (24/7 Wall St)

San Francisco police deployed BriefCam AI tracking across nearly 500 Flock cameras.(The San Francisco Standard)

A Metro Detroit municipality votes against deploying Flock license plate surveillance cameras.(The Detroit News)

Lakeland approves a $21.9 million contract expansion for Axon artificial intelligence tools.(Lakeland Gazette)

Education and Justice departments took enforcement action against LAUSD over gender identity policies.(The United States Department of Justice)

Bellingham secures state funding to launch a police aerial surveillance drone program.(officer.com)

The pattern

Police officers in four departments were investigated, charged or resigned after misusing license plate reader data.

Whiteside County sheriff suspended license plate reader access after personal data misuse.(KWQC)

Eastpointe City Council voted 4-1 to cancel its $70,000 Flock Safety contract.(Detroit Free Press)

East Peoria City Council weighs adding 10 Flock license plate cameras.(WCBU Peoria)

Two former suburban police officers are charged with misusing Flock cameras.(Shaw Local)

Flock watch

Abington removing three Flock cameras over data breaches(NBC10 Philadelphia)

Atkinson voted unanimously to ban automated license plate readers(Port City Daily)

Suffolk County expanded police Flock license plate cameras to 60(New York Post)

Hawaii plans to deploy roughly 400 license plate readers(West Hawaii Today)

Michigan used Flock readers for immigration enforcement(The Detroit News)

Surveillance & Privacy

Los Angeles City Council considers asserting jurisdiction over LAPD's Axon contract.(MyNewsLA.com)

Waymo reportedly halted a vehicle and alerted police to arrest two juveniles.(NRA-ILA)

FBI probe used a pen register that allegedly tracked defense attorneys.(Twitchy)

Dutchess County pulled a bill requiring legislative approval for surveillance contracts.(Mid-Hudson News)

Coming Up

Tue Oct 6

Takes effectOhio — Ohio's statewide police drone law (House Bill 251) takes effect (DroneXL)

Tue Oct 6

MeetingMarshall County, IN — Marshall County Commissioners hold a special meeting on terminating the Flock Safety camera contract (95.3 MNC)

Tue Oct 6

MeetingMarshall County — Marshall County holds a special public meeting to discuss proposed Flock surveillance cameras (InkFreeNews.com)

Tue Oct 6

MeetingRichmond, CA — Richmond city staff reports back to City Council on compiling police ALPR data for council review (Richmondside)

Tue Oct 6

MeetingScottsdale, AZ — Scottsdale City Council discusses and considers police use of Flock license plate reader cameras (ABC15 Arizona)

Tue Oct 6

MeetingTelluride, CO — Telluride Town Council holds a work session and discussion on its automated license plate reader program (The Telluride Times)

Full calendar and .ics feed →

Speech & Press

OPM directed federal agencies to replace a Trump-era job essay after a ruling.(Maryland Matters)

The Trump administration asked the First Circuit to freeze $2.6 billion in grants.(courthousenews.com)

A Trump DOJ report claims Merrick Garland pressured FBI over school board protests.(Fox News)

Useful

Community Control Over Police Surveillance(aclu.org)

The ACLU's model ordinance that makes a city council vote in public before police buy surveillance tech. Two dozen cities have passed a version.

All the tools and guides →

Past issues

Mon, Oct 5

Hawaii plans to deploy 400 plate readers

Fri, Oct 2

West Yorkshire Police deployed live facial…

Thu, Oct 1

Cambridgeshire Police will deploy live…

Wed, Sep 30

Flock Safety plans surveillance drones

Tue, Sep 29

Germany's parliament passed a Federal…

Mon, Sep 28

Texas cities deactivate 900 Flock cameras

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…

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