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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Madison County drops Flock Safety contract

Wednesday, October 21, 2026 · 22 stories · view as email

Top

Madison County terminates its Flock Safety license-plate reader contract.(Online Athens)

The Madison County sheriff terminated the department's contract with Flock Safety amid surveillance misuse investigations, though Now Georgia reports the cameras remain mounted.

ANALYSISMadison County Sheriff Drops Flock Cameras Amid Investigations into Surveillance Misuse (Now Georgia)

Siloam Springs directors vote to turn off Flock Safety license plate cameras.(khbs)

Delhi Police buy eight anti-riot vehicles equipped with AI surveillance cameras.(Biometric Update)

Bedfordshire Police deploy live facial recognition over 80 times across the county.(Bedford Independent)

Essex Police will deploy live facial recognition vans able to scan covered faces.(Southend Echo)

Fourth Circuit sets oral argument in remanded geofence warrant appeal.(Mealey's)

The pattern

Three law enforcement agencies fired staff for misusing license plate reader systems.

Savannah police department members misused Flock system for personal purposes.(WTOC)

Milton police fire a detective for using the Flock database to track his wife.(FOX 5 Atlanta)

Macon County Sheriff's Office fires an employee for misusing license plate readers.(WLOS)

Under the radar

Bloomington approves a $22 million Axon contract expanding Drone as First Responder units.(hometownsource.com)

Flock watch

St. Johns County revokes permits for Flock Safety readers(News4JAX)

Maries County terminates its Flock Safety contract(KOMU 8)

Fairfax County police cut the number of people who can search plate data.(FOX 5 DC)

Santa Monica City Council approves $700,000 license plate reader agreement(Patch)

Flock Safety spent $360,000 on federal lobbying(Bloomberg Law News)

Surveillance & Privacy

Clearview AI challenges the UK Information Commissioner penalty in Court of Appeal.(biometricupdate.com)

Apple faces a class-action trial over claims its Photos app creates faceprints.(The Madison-St. Clair Record)

Auburn police seek council funding for a permanent drone first-responder program.(Auburn Reporter)

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

Coming Up

Wed Oct 21

HearingOklahoma City, OK — Oklahoma legislative interim study examines use of Flock surveillance cameras and privacy concerns (News On 6)

Wed Oct 21

HearingOklahoma City, OK — Oklahoma Senate holds an interim study examining Flock surveillance cameras and privacy concerns (News 9)

Wed Oct 21

MeetingPocatello, Idaho — City hosts a public town hall on Flock license plate reader technology (Idaho State Journal)

Wed Oct 21

MeetingPocatello, ID — City of Pocatello holds a town hall meeting on Flock license plate reader cameras (eastidahonews.com)

Wed Oct 21

MeetingReno, NV — Reno City Council considers a new license-plate reader contract with a different vendor (KTVN)

Wed Oct 21

VoteDelavan, WI — Delavan City Council makes final decision on removing or deactivating Flock license plate surveillance cameras (TMJ4)

Full calendar and .ics feed →

Speech & Press

The Marshall Project sues ICE to force disclosure of detainee names and locations.(themarshallproject.org)

European leaders are justifying expanded speech controls as combatting disinformation.(Mises Institute)

Mississippi will release surveillance footage of a fatal police shooting of a toddler.(WJTV)

Useful

Street-Level Surveillance(sls.eff.org)

EFF's explainers on each police technology: what an ALPR, a drone, a cell-site simulator or a face recognition system actually does with your data.

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…

Tue, Oct 20

ACLU warns ICE could target activists

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.