Crow's Nest
Tuesday, November 3, 2026 · The digital civil-liberties brief · View on the web
Top
- Flock Safety enlisted active police officers to pitch license plate readers. (The Maine Monitor)
- UK retail chains falsely accused shoppers of theft via facial recognition. (TechRadar)
- Western Australia Police scanned 1,380,882 faces in a mobile facial recognition trial. (The Guardian)
- General Motors will pay $7 million over claims OnStar sold driving data. (courthousenews.com)
- Baltimore County Police expanded remote aerial drone observation to Dundalk. (Dundalk Eagle)
Flock watch
- Taylor terminates its Flock Safety contract and disables eight automated readers. (Taylor Press)
- Renton police will end their contract for 24 Flock plate readers. (Courier-Herald)
- Contractor Municipal Tax Services uses plate readers to tax cars for commissions. (Gadget Review)
- Federal judge rules a warrantless Flock license plate query violated the Fourth Amendment. (The Lancaster News)
- Macon County sheriff fired deputy Jonathan Bean over alleged Flock misuse. (Carolina Public Press)
Surveillance & Privacy
- St. Louis police department plans to deploy six drones to emergency calls. (www.stl.news)
- Armenia opened its first biometric document center with private firm HayPass. (biometricupdate.com)
- UK police deployed live facial recognition in London's Westminster and Croydon. (Punch Newspapers)
- St. Louis police board will vote on rules for six drones. (Spectrum News)
Coming Up
Tue Nov 3 · BALLOT · Arizona — Arizona voters decide Proposition 319 to prohibit new photo radar, red-light, or traffic-sign camera systems (KTAR.com)
Tue Nov 3 · BALLOT · Boulder, Colorado — Boulder voters elect mayor and city council candidates who have taken stances on city Flock license plate reader cameras (The Boulder Reporting Lab)
Tue Nov 3 · BALLOT · Hollywood, FL — Citizen demands for the regulation or banning of Flock surveillance cameras factor into midterm elections (EL PAÍS English)
Tue Nov 3 · BALLOT · League City, Texas — League City voters decide Proposition A on whether police should continue using 55 Flock surveillance cameras (The Texas Tribune)
Tue Nov 3 · BALLOT · Providence, RI — Mayoral election between David Morales and David Talan with the city's Flock surveillance contract at issue (WPRI.com)
Tue Nov 3 · BALLOT · Raleigh, NC — Raleigh voters elect City Council members and mayor amid debate over Flock license-plate surveillance cameras (Raleigh News and Observer)
Speech & Press
- Fifth Circuit orders en banc rehearing on Texas social-media monitoring mandates. (Reason)
- German Chancellor Friedrich Merz called for an end to online anonymity. (Reason)
- Protect Democracy sues under FOIA to compel disclosure of AI framework. (Gadget Review)
Useful
Street-Level Surveillance — 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.
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