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The Ban Flock Act is a released federal bill draft, not an enacted law. Its proposed restriction on police departments would work mainly through federal funding: state and local governments could lose eligibility for certain assistance unless they adopt rules that prohibit automated license-plate reader (ALPR) use to at least the same extent as the draft. Separately, it would directly restrict federal government use of ALPRs and access to plate data. It would not immediately switch off every local Flock camera.
What is the Ban Flock Act?
The Ban Flock Act is a proposal announced by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s office on October 2, 2026. The released draft is dated September 30, 2026; its cover has blank fields for a House bill number and committee referral. It should therefore be described as released draft text, not as an enacted law or as a measure known to have completed formal introduction. The announcement says Ocasio-Cortez introduced the proposal with Senator Bernie Sanders, but the draft’s blank House fields do not establish a formal legislative status beyond the released text. Sponsor announcement; released draft.
The draft addresses automated license-plate readers broadly, rather than naming only Flock products. Its definition encompasses systems that use cameras, sensors, software, databases, or combinations of technologies to capture or analyze plate information, identify or track vehicles using plates or other persistent visual identifiers, or compare plates with databases to generate alerts and vehicle-activity records. The text describes data and systems associated with fixed or mobile readers, police vehicles, trailers, drones, toll infrastructure, parking systems, private security networks, homeowners’ associations, commercial parking operators, and data brokers.
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“Captured plate data” is also defined broadly. It includes plate numbers and images, dates, times, locations, direction of travel, vehicle characteristics, confidence scores, associated photos or video, and derived information. That breadth matters because the federal provisions would address not just owning a camera, but also accessing or using data collected by another entity.
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How would it affect police use of Flock cameras?
For state and local police, the central mechanism is a proposed condition on federal financial assistance—not a direct nationwide command to local departments to remove cameras. Beginning on the first day of the first fiscal year after enactment, assistance administered, awarded, allocated, transferred, or otherwise made available by five departments could be conditioned on the state or local government having a law or binding policy that prohibits ALPR use to the same or greater extent as the draft’s federal restriction.
| Federal department named in the draft | Proposed effect |
|---|---|
| Justice | Covered assistance could be unavailable to a state or local government that lacks a sufficiently restrictive ALPR law or binding policy. |
| Transportation | Covered assistance could be unavailable on the same condition. |
| Health and Human Services | Covered assistance could be unavailable on the same condition. |
| Housing and Urban Development | Covered assistance could be unavailable on the same condition. |
| Homeland Security | Covered assistance could be unavailable on the same condition. |
The provision is drafted to cover state and local governments and their agencies, officials, employees, contractors, and people acting on their behalf. Its practical reach would depend on the specified assistance and how governments respond: a jurisdiction could face a funding choice if it wants to continue ALPR use while also seeking covered federal aid. The draft does not say that every federal grant to every local department would be affected.
It would directly bar federal use and access
The draft would generally prohibit federal agencies, federal officials acting in an official capacity, and people acting on the federal government’s behalf from acquiring, possessing, accessing, or using an ALPR in the United States. It also covers captured plate data, including information held in a database that originated with a system operated by another entity. As a result, the proposed federal restriction is not limited to cameras owned or operated by federal agencies; it could also reach federal access to local or private systems’ data. The draft’s exceptions, including tolling-only use, qualify this general prohibition. Ban Flock Act draft.
It would restrict federal money and related agreements
The proposal would bar federal funds, directly or indirectly, from being used to purchase, acquire, lease, install, operate, maintain, or upgrade an ALPR. It would also cover buying, licensing, obtaining, accessing, searching, retaining, analyzing, or disclosing captured plate data, as well as entering, renewing, or extending contracts, subscriptions, data-sharing agreements, and similar arrangements for ALPR use or data. The draft addresses recipients and subrecipients, prohibits charging restricted activities to grants, and bars certain fund-shifting or arrangements that direct another entity to carry out the activity.
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The draft separately says it does not prohibit a non-federal entity from using non-federal funds for activity otherwise lawful under the Act. That does not eliminate the proposed grant condition: a state or local government using its own funds for ALPRs could still be required to adopt the specified restrictions to remain eligible for covered federal assistance.
What would the draft allow for tolling?
The draft exempts systems used solely to assess, bill, collect, audit, dispute, or enforce toll payments. It sharply limits how data collected for that tolling purpose could be used, shared, and retained:
- Prohibited secondary uses: toll data could not be used for law-enforcement hot lists, law-enforcement or intelligence purposes, monitoring or reconstructing movement, or general-purpose ALPR databases. It could not be sold, licensed, used for advertising, product development, or unrelated commercial purposes.
- Limited disclosure: disclosure would be allowed only to enumerated recipients and in specified circumstances, including certain toll functions, a particularized probable-cause warrant, and an imminent danger of death or serious bodily injury.
- Emergency disclosure: an emergency disclosure must be documented and limited. The requesting agency must apply for and obtain the specified warrant within 14 days.
- Retention: reconciled toll-payment data generally must be deleted within 48 hours. The draft allows limited retention of billing, collection, dispute, or proceeding records under its stated conditions.
These are provisions in the released draft; they should not be mistaken for current rules governing toll systems. Ban Flock Act draft.
What enforcement and remedies does the draft provide?
The draft proposes several mechanisms tied to its federal-use section:
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- Limits on evidence: information obtained in violation of that section generally could not be admitted when offered by the federal government in a criminal, civil, administrative, or other proceeding. The stated exception is a judicial proceeding alleging a violation of the section.
- Lawsuits: an aggrieved individual could sue the federal government. A state attorney general or other authorized state officer could bring an action on residents’ behalf.
- Available relief: a prevailing individual plaintiff could receive actual or punitive damages, attorneys’ fees and costs, and other appropriate relief, including an injunction.
- Personnel consequences: federal officials could face retraining, suspension, termination, or another penalty, subject to applicable due-process requirements.
The draft also permits NIST testing or research involving ALPRs and similar commercial technologies, and says it would not preempt stricter federal, state, or local laws. These are proposed provisions, not existing remedies or requirements.
How is the Ban Flock Act different from the NO FLOCK Act?
The names are easy to confuse, but they refer to distinct proposals. The Government Publishing Office lists H.R. 10366, the “No Federal License-Plate Observation and Camera Keeping Act” or “NO FLOCK Act,” as introduced on September 14, 2026, and referred to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. That bill would withhold 10 percent of certain surface-transportation apportionments from states without specified ALPR restrictions. By contrast, the Ban Flock Act draft described here names five departments’ assistance, contains a direct federal-use restriction, and has blank House bill-number and referral fields in the released copy. GPO record for H.R. 10366.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Why is the proposal controversial?
Supporters frame the measure as a privacy and civil-liberties safeguard. Ocasio-Cortez said the proposal was intended to “enforce our constitutional right to privacy and protect Americans from both corporate and government surveillance.” Senator Jeff Merkley argued that privacy includes “the freedom to move around your community without every move being monitored.” Those are the sponsors’ stated arguments, not findings that the draft has already changed surveillance practices. Sponsor announcement.
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Supporters of ALPR use point to investigative and public-safety benefits. In a September 2026 Associated Press report, Flock vice president of communications MoMo Zhou said the technology had helped “solve approximately one million crimes and helped reunite roughly 10,000 missing people with their families.” This is a company claim reported by AP, not an independent evaluation of causal impact. Police Executive Research Forum executive director Chuck Wexler described the issue to AP as a balance between community interest in information use and police effectiveness in preventing crime. Associated Press report.
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Civil-liberties critics also question whether company controls are enough when police decide whom to search. Institute for Justice senior attorney Robert Frommer told AP that the changes were “window dressing” and argued that judges, rather than officers, should make decisions about searches through real warrants. Flock CEO Garrett Langley, by contrast, told AP that the company’s changes would give cities and departments control to use the system in a manner “consistent with community values.” These statements express opposing views about safeguards; they do not establish how the proposed bill would fare in Congress. Associated Press report.
How does the proposal relate to Flock’s announced safeguards?
In August 2026, AP reported that Flock announced mandatory audit and search controls for law-enforcement customers. The announced measures included an audit tool intended to flag abnormal behavior, a requirement for case-linked search codes, and a planned reduction in standard retention from 30 days to seven days, with longer preservation allowed when data is evidence tied to a case number. AP said implementation was planned by January 1. These are company-announced system changes, not requirements in the Ban Flock Act draft, and the report does not establish their current implementation status. Associated Press report.
The distinction is important: company safeguards govern how a vendor says its platform should be used, while the draft would set legal restrictions on federal government activity and attach a condition to specified federal assistance for state and local governments. A shorter standard retention period or an audit trail does not, by itself, meet or replace the draft’s proposed limits.
What scale does the sponsor cite?
Ocasio-Cortez’s office said in its October 2, 2026 announcement that there were more than 120,000 Flock cameras across the country, that 20 billion vehicles were scanned and recorded each month, and that at least 56 municipalities had deactivated, canceled, or rejected Flock contracts so far in 2026. These figures are the sponsor’s claims and should be attributed to the announcement rather than treated as independently verified counts. Sponsor announcement.
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