Demand an Independent Audit of Maryland's Flock Safety ALPR Network

Maryland passed HB 444 and HB 711 to keep plate-reader data out of ICE's hands, but nobody has checked whether those laws are actually working. I want to know what you are doing to audit compliance — not just pass the rules, but verify them. This isn't hypothetical. Illinois ran a records request and found 4,000-plus Flock searches logged under reasons like "ICE+ERO" and "immigration." Virginia found nearly 3,000 similar searches. California's police chief discovered 299 unauthorized federal queries through a routine internal audit. In every case, the problem only surfaced because someone chose to look. Maryland has no published audit, no disclosed lookup count, and — according to a review of MuckRock's public records archive — not a single ALPR-related records request filed against any Maryland agency. Meanwhile, a 2013 DOJ document shows an ICE analyst held an Assistant Director seat inside the Maryland Coordination and Analysis Center, the fusion center that houses our statewide plate data. Whether that arrangement still exists has never been publicly confirmed or denied. Maryland's laws are only as strong as the oversight behind them. I want a public, independent audit of MCAC's current access controls, a full accounting of which agencies have queried Maryland plate data and for what stated purpose, and a direct answer on whether any federal agency holds an active role inside MCAC today. The laws exist. Now do the work to find out if they're holding.