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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ACLU warns ICE could target activists

Tuesday, October 20, 2026 · 22 stories · view as email

Top

ACLU warns ICE plans to hire intelligence analysts to investigate activists.(Jay Stanley / aclu.org)

The ACLU reports the Trump administration plans to spend $100 million hiring ICE intelligence agents to investigate activists and nonprofits labeled as threats.

River Falls police plan to drop Flock license plate readers after review.(Hudson Star Observer)

Excelsior Springs voted unanimously to terminate its Flock Safety contract within 30 days.(KSHB 41 Kansas City)

Hong Kong police finalize talks to connect private shopping mall CCTV feeds.(South China Morning Post)

Delhi Police issued a tender for 338 facial-recognition CCTV cameras.(Livemint)

Cato Institute releases analyses criticizing online age verification mandates.(cato.org)

The pattern

Three police officers were criminally charged or indicted following audits that revealed unauthorized Flock camera searches.

Greene County charges former lieutenant with four misdemeanors over 222 unauthorized Flock queries.(OzarksFirst.com)

GBI charges former police sergeant with misusing a Flock license plate reader.(WJCL)

An Ohio grand jury indicted a police lieutenant for 29 unauthorized Flock searches.(The Auto Wire)

Under the radar

Bloomington unanimously approves a contract expanding police surveillance to Drone as First Responder.(hometownsource.com)

Flock watch

Sherman, Texas votes 7-0 to remove all 11 Flock cameras(KXII)

5th Circuit asked to overturn sentence over 13,000 cameras(KPRC)

Santa Monica voted 7-0 to buy license-plate reader system(Patch)

El Paso voted unanimously to bar Flock Safety contracts(DiarioBitcoin)

Police departments bought Flock readers to evade bidding rules(The Verge)

Surveillance & Privacy

European Commission proposes the EU KIDS Act to require online gaming age checks.(techpolicy.press)

Dubai Police test autonomous robotic patrol vehicles equipped with facial recognition and lidar.(Guessing Headlights)

Meta deploys AI profile and video analysis to detect under-13 accounts.(TechTarget)

Amsterdam police seize server belonging to anti-fascist provider and transfer data to U.S.(Decrypt)

Coming Up

Tue Oct 20

DeadlineSt. Lucie County, FL — Extended deadline for removal of certain permitted Flock Safety cameras from county right-of-way (WQCS)

Tue Oct 20

DeadlineFairfax — Fairfax officials face a deadline to decide whether to renew the Flock Safety camera contract (WLWT)

Tue Oct 20

HearingArvada, CO — Arvada City Council holds public hearing on 2027 budget and is expected to approve removing Flock camera funding (Arvada Press)

Tue Oct 20

MeetingFairfax County, Virginia — Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Safety and Security Committee meets to discuss Flock license plate readers (FOX 5 DC)

Tue Oct 20

MeetingFountain Hills, Arizona — Fountain Hills Town Council discusses automated license plate readers and a Sharia law proposal (Fountain Hills Times Independent)

Tue Oct 20

MeetingMorgantown, WV — Morgantown City Council considers revised surveillance technology ordinance for first reading (https://www.wdtv.com)

Full calendar and .ics feed →

Speech & Press

The FBI established secret AI election-investigation rules.(cato.org)

National Retail Federation urged Second Circuit judges to revive its algorithmic pricing lawsuit.(courthousenews.com)

The 6th Circuit revived a retaliation lawsuit against East Cleveland officials.(Reason)

Useful

CourtListener and RECAP(courtlistener.com)

Free federal court dockets and opinions. Install the RECAP extension and every PACER document you open becomes free for the next person.

All the tools and guides →

Past issues

Tue, Oct 27

Suffolk Constabulary will deploy live…

Mon, Oct 26

New York passes license plate reader bill

Fri, Oct 23

Met Police deploys live facial recognition

Thu, Oct 22

A New Mexico judge orders Meta…

Wed, Oct 21

Madison County drops Flock Safety contract

Mon, Oct 19

El Paso bars Flock license plate reader deals

Fri, Oct 16

Courts reject DOJ voter roll lawsuits

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

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