Congressman Pat Harrigan (R-NC) leads charge in Congress against Flock spy cameras | Eastern NC Now

UPDATE:

Congressman Pat Harrigan (R-NC) is leading the charge in Congress to protect the freedom and privacy of law abiding ordinary citizens from the Flock mass surveillance cameras that are appearing all over the country, like something out of Orwell's novel "1984" or out of the old Soviet KGB.  "Flock and associated cameras like Flock, distributed across our entire country has created a surveillance state," Congressman Harrigan declared.  The former Special Forces veteran declared he wanted mass surveillance cameras "to get the Flock out of his district."  One of the many abuses of Flock by someone to cyberstalk another person for personal reasons recently happened in Harrigan's district.

https://dailycaller.com/2026/09/15/pat-harrigan-flock-safety-cameras-fisa-section-702-congress-surveillance/

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ORIGINAL POST:

Mass surveillance of citizens by government is a staple of dystopian novels of a dark future like Huxley's "Brave New World" and Orwell's "1984".  The slogan "Big Brother is watching you" is a memorable line from the latter.

Unfortunately, a public-private partnership of mass surveillance has reared its ugly head in our own country, the Flock network of mass surveillance cameras.  These cameras collect license plate numbers and a lot of other data about every car that passes them and feeds that data into central computers.  Some of the systems even collect data on communications devices present in cars that pass.

When an area has a Flock network built out, it is possible to construct the movements of everyday citizens.  Already, there have been numerous cases of people in law enforcement using the Flock system to cyberstalk current or former romantic partners.  There are also a growing number of people arrested for things they had nothing to do with, sometimes at gunpoint.  It would not be difficult for a foreign adversary to get into the system and use it to track Americans they choose to target.

Citizens and some state and local governments are taking action to crack down on  this threat to privacy and freedom in their areas.  Ober 200 cities have already done so, as well as the states of Texas and Florida.  It has become an issue in the governor's election in Nevada, where the debate between candidates has been competing plans to restrict Flock.

In Beaufort County, no government units operate Flock cameras.  The only ones in the county are at the two entrances to Lowes.

https://dailycaller.com/2026/09/12/states-republicans-democrats-flock-cameras-alpr-pennsylvania-california/

Here in North Carolina, it was establishment Republicans who long sought to authorize Flock mass surveillance cameras on a temporary basis.  For years, bills to do this were stopped because Rep. Keith Kidwell and the House Freedom Caucus promised a bruising floor fight against it if such a bill was brought to the House floor. and the Speaker then pulled the bill.  Finally, Flock advocates used an excused medical absence of Kidwell, and the fact that the designated Freedom Caucus member failed to catch the last minute addition of Flock authorization language to an unrelated bill to pass temporary authorization of Flock cameras in our state.  This year, establishment Phil Berger Senate budget writers inserted permanent authorization into the state budget as a special provision.  The rules do not allow amendments to the budget bill, sot the budget passed with that in it.  We are really and truly Flocked.