1. United States
2. Iowa
3. Letter

I am writing because I need you to act on the rapid, unregulated spread of automated license plate reader (ALPR) cameras — often called Flock cameras — across our communities, and I am asking you to rein in this technology before it does more damage. These systems, marketed by companies like Flock Safety, now number over 120,000 cameras nationwide and photograph, log, and store the license plate, location, and vehicle details of every car that passes, whether or not the driver is suspected of anything. In just the past several weeks, a Massachusetts officer has faced firing and possible criminal charges for improperly accessing the system to look up someone he knew, five Albany, Georgia police officers were arrested and fired, and two officers in Greer, South Carolina were fired — all for abusing this same camera data. The Institute for Justice has now documented more than 100 such abuse incidents nationwide, including stalking and wrongful detentions. This is not a partisan issue. Congress has a real bill on the table — the Protection Against Mass Surveillance Act (H.R. 9800), introduced in July 2026 — to restrict federal use of this technology, and lawmakers from Pennsylvania to West Virginia are pushing similar guardrails at the state level. The ACLU has also released model legislation and filed a federal appellate brief arguing this technology enables warrantless mass surveillance in violation of the Fourth Amendment. I shouldn’t have to prove I’ve done nothing wrong just to drive to work, church, or a protest without it being logged into a permanent, searchable database. That’s the part that worries me most. I am asking you to: • Support or introduce legislation modeled on H.R. 9800 and the ACLU’s guidelines, requiring a warrant or individualized suspicion before ALPR data can be searched. • Push for hearings on how this data is shared across agencies, including with federal immigration enforcement. • Require strict retention limits, audit logs, and real penalties for misuse. The Fourth Amendment shouldn’t stop at the edge of a parking lot. I need you to answer the question in this letter’s title with action, not silence. Thank you for your time and attention to this.