Massie Announces Bill to Cut Federal Funding From Cities Using Flock License Plate Cameras

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) announced Saturday, July 25, that he will soon introduce a bill to withhold federal funding from municipalities and police departments that use Flock Safety cameras or similar automated license plate readers, according to a post on X and reporting from Newsweek.

Massie posted a modified Gadsden flag showing a rattlesnake coiled around a license plate reader mounted on a pole, captioned "don't flock me." His message: "I'll soon be sponsoring a bill to withhold federal money from municipalities and police departments that deploy Flock (and other style) cameras to surveil law abiding citizens."

The approach is different from prior surveillance fights. Rather than trying to ban the cameras outright or regulate them through the courts, Massie's bill targets the money. Flock Safety works with more than 5,000 law enforcement agencies across roughly 6,000 communities nationwide, according to Newsweek, running a network of tens of thousands of cameras that log license plates, vehicle make, model, color, time and location. A funding cutoff aimed at that customer base would hit Flock's business model directly.

Third GOP Shot at Flock in a Week

Massie's announcement is the third Republican move against Flock-style surveillance in roughly a week, according to ZeroHedge. On July 21, Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) filed H.R. 9800, the Protection Against Mass Surveillance Act, which would bar federal agencies from purchasing, funding, or accessing automated license plate readers, and Flock is named specifically in the bill text. The measure also covers biometric tracking including fingerprints, iris scans, voice, and gait recognition. Any data a federal agency collected under the bill would have to be deleted within 30 days and would be inadmissible in court.

Burchett summarized his position bluntly: "We gotta ban these dadgum things."

Earlier in July, Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) tried to attach a committee amendment restricting license plate readers. It failed. Perry responded on social media, "STOP THE FLOCK," signaling the fight would continue.

The current push builds on an earlier bill. In April, Massie partnered with Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) on the Surveillance Accountability Act, which would require a probable-cause warrant before federal or local agencies conduct certain surveillance, ban warrantless facial recognition in public spaces, block agencies from buying around the Fourth Amendment through third-party data brokers, and let individual federal employees be sued personally for violations.

Flock's Defense

A Flock Safety spokesperson told Newsweek that Massie's bill would "have real consequences for public safety." The company said that in 2025 its technology supported more than one million public safety investigations, assisted in 20% of solved cases in jurisdictions that partner with Flock, and helped locate more than 10,000 missing people.

"Withholding federal funding from the thousands of police departments that rely on license plate reader technology would have real consequences for public safety," the spokesperson said. Flock argued Congress should instead pursue "strong, clear safeguards that ensure accountability, oversight, and responsible use are enshrined in law," adding, "We do not have to choose between protecting privacy and giving law enforcement the tools it needs to keep communities safe. We can, and should, do both."

Police departments in small and mid-size towns often can't afford their own surveillance infrastructure, and Flock's stolen-vehicle recoveries and Amber Alert assists are documented outcomes, not hypotheticals. If Flock's 20% solved-case figure holds up to independent scrutiny, cutting funding wholesale rather than reforming use policy could mean real cases go unsolved that otherwise wouldn't.

But the underlying concern driving Massie, Burchett, and Perry isn't paranoia. A network of thousands of cameras logging every passing vehicle's plate, time, and location creates a searchable movement history on people who've never been charged with anything. That's a fundamentally different capability than a single traffic camera or a one-time stolen-car alert, and it exists without a warrant requirement in most jurisdictions today. Whether the right fix is Massie's funding cutoff, Burchett's federal purchase ban, or some licensing-and-audit regime nobody in Congress has yet drafted is the actual policy fight.

Massie is not seeking reelection after losing his primary this year, according to reporting cited on a Louisville-focused news podcast, meaning this bill and the Boebert-backed Surveillance Accountability Act are likely to be among his final legislative pushes before he leaves Congress.

No bill text has been formally introduced or scored by the Congressional Budget Office as of this writing. Massie's office did not immediately respond to Newsweek's after-hours request for comment. Whether the bill attracts Democratic co-sponsors, several of whom have separately raised privacy concerns about ALPR data sharing with federal immigration enforcement, remains an open question heading into whatever is left of this Congress before Massie's term ends.