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

Courts reject DOJ voter roll lawsuits

Friday, October 16, 2026 · 22 stories · view as email

Top

Federal courts rejected 26 DOJ lawsuits demanding sensitive state voter rolls.(Quinta Jurecic / The Atlantic)

Federal district courts have rejected 26 DOJ lawsuits seeking to force 30 states and D.C. to surrender voter rolls with Social Security and license numbers, The Atlantic and Raw Story report. The department sought the data to investigate noncitizen voting, but judges have handed the administration zero victories.

Judges Repeatedly Dismiss Lawsuits Seeking Access to State Voter Registration Data (propublica.org)

ANALYSISFederal Judges Reject Justice Department Lawsuits Seeking Sensitive State Voter Rolls (Raw Story)

Harris County delayed action on Flock cameras after an internal report.(FOX 26 Houston)

Axon's Fusus platform links nearly 624,000 public and private cameras for police.(Prism)

An Israeli firm reportedly helped deliver Candiru spyware to 45 Al Jazeera devices.(cpj.org)

Jackson will not renew its Flock Safety license plate reader contract.(WAPT)

Delhi Police tender for 338 facial recognition cameras around protest sites.(Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF))

The pattern

Police personnel in three departments faced discipline or investigation for running unauthorized personal searches in databases.

A Georgia deputy was arrested for allegedly using Flock cameras for personal searches.(WJBF)

Erie County DA declined charges against employees tracking a co-worker with Flock.(wkbw.com)

Nye County reinstated Sheriff Joe McGill's database access after 102 undocumented searches.(Las Vegas Review-Journal)

Under the radar

Outside agencies ran 2.75 million searches on Asheville license plate readers.(The Asheville Citizen Times)

Flock watch

Fairfield removed its Flock license plate readers and deployed 54 Axon cameras.(CTPost)

Bloomington City Council votes 7-0 to ban automated license plate readers(The Bloomingtonian)

Elgin Community College removes 6 Flock license plate readers(CBS News)

Dumfries, Virginia votes to pause Flock license plate readers(DC News Now)

Troy vetoes measure to purge Flock data after 72 hours(WRGB)

Surveillance & Privacy

ICE plans a $100M program deploying 142 contractor analysts across 24 areas.(Gadget Review)

Supreme Court denies a Fourth Amendment challenge to Maine's mandatory boat GPS.(KTAR.com)

The ICO reprimanded London's Metropolitan Police for unlawfully uploading data to Auror.(theregister.com)

South Heart School board dismissed a proposal discussing classroom audio and video surveillance.(The Dickinson Press)

Coming Up

Fri Oct 16

DeadlineWashington, DC — Deadline for FBI Director Kash Patel to respond to lawmakers' inquiries regarding nationwide automated license plate reader surveillance access (Hoodline)

Fri Oct 16

DeadlineSt. Lucie County, FL — Deadline for permitted Flock Safety license plate reader cameras to be removed from county right-of-way (WQCS)

Fri Oct 16

DeadlineWashington, DC — Flock Safety deadline to answer Sen. Chuck Schumer regarding data use, camera hacking, and reported misuse (Washington Examiner)

Sat Oct 17

DeadlineRI — Governor McKee's review of Rhode Island plate reader policies is due (Uprise RI)

Mon Oct 19

BallotLeague City, Texas — Early voting begins on ballot measure deciding whether League City continues using Flock cameras (Houston Chronicle)

Mon Oct 19

DeadlineCharleston, WV — Flock Safety deadline to confirm appearance at West Virginia legislative committee meeting (West Virginia Public Broadcasting)

Full calendar and .ics feed →

Speech & Press

The 11th Circuit rejects NetChoice's First Amendment challenge to Georgia's SB 351.(reason.com)

The 11th Circuit allows Georgia to enforce a social media law.(news.bloomberglaw.com)

Turkish police raided opposition broadcaster Halk TV and halted live broadcasts.(cpj.org)

Useful

Know your rights: protesters(aclu.org)

The ACLU's plain statement of what police can and cannot do at a protest, and what to do if you are stopped or arrested.

All the tools and guides →

Past issues

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

Fri, Oct 9

Flock refused to remove college cameras

Thu, Oct 8

Internal reports show Homeland Security…

Wed, Oct 7

South Windsor ends Flock reader contract

Tue, Oct 6

FinCEN withdrew two rules on Oct. 5…

Mon, Oct 5

Hawaii plans to deploy 400 plate readers

Fri, Oct 2

West Yorkshire Police deployed live facial…

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