The Ban Flock Act is a proposed federal bill—not a law—that would directly restrict federal agencies’ use of automated license-plate readers (ALPRs) and use federal funding conditions to pressure state and local governments to adopt similar limits. It would not immediately switch off every local police camera. A released draft dated September 30, 2026, has blank bill-number and committee-referral fields; the sponsor’s office announced it on October 2, 2026.
What is the Ban Flock Act?
The Ban Flock Act is the name of a released House draft introduced in its text by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, with Senator Bernie Sanders identified as a co-sponsor in the sponsor’s announcement. The draft would place restrictions on ALPR technology, including Flock cameras, through federal-use prohibitions, conditions on certain federal assistance, and limits on using federal money to buy or access systems and data. Its cover leaves the bill number and committee referral blank, so it should be described as a proposal rather than an enacted law or a measure known to have completed formal introduction. The sponsor’s October 2, 2026 announcement and released draft text establish those details.
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How would it affect police use of Flock cameras?
The draft does not directly order every state and local police department to stop using Flock cameras. Its local-government lever is federal funding: certain assistance administered by five federal departments would be unavailable to a state or local government unless it had a law or binding policy restricting ALPR use to the same or a greater extent than the draft’s federal restriction. That condition would apply beginning on the first day of the first fiscal year after enactment. For local police, the effect would therefore depend on whether the proposal became law, which covered federal assistance the government receives, and whether its own restrictions met the standard.
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The five departments named are Justice, Transportation, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, and Homeland Security. The proposed condition reaches government agencies and officials as well as employees, contractors, and people acting on a government’s behalf. Separately, federal funds could not be used directly or indirectly for ALPR systems or captured plate data. The draft covers purchases, leases, installation, operation, maintenance, upgrades, data access and use, and contracts or data-sharing arrangements. It also treats prohibited activities as ineligible grant costs and addresses recipients, subrecipients, and attempts to route or shift funding.
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What would the direct federal prohibition cover?
Except for stated exceptions, federal agencies, federal officials acting officially, and people acting on the federal government’s behalf could not acquire, possess, access, or use an ALPR in the United States. The restriction would also cover captured plate data, including information held in a database when another entity operated the system that collected it. In other words, the draft is not limited to federal ownership of cameras; federal access to data collected by a local or private system could also be covered.
The draft defines ALPRs broadly as systems using cameras, sensors, software, databases, or combinations of technologies to capture and store plate information; identify, locate, or track vehicles by plate or another persistent visual identifier; or compare plates with databases to generate alerts or vehicle-activity records. Captured plate data can include plate numbers and images, dates, times, locations, direction of travel, vehicle characteristics, confidence scores, associated photos or video, and derived information. The text describes data sources ranging from fixed and mobile readers to police vehicles, trailers, drones, toll and parking infrastructure, private security networks, homeowners’ associations, commercial parking operators, and data brokers.
What exception would apply to toll systems?
The draft would exempt systems used solely to assess, bill, collect, audit, dispute, or enforce toll payment, but it would tightly limit what happens to toll data. It could not be used for law-enforcement hot lists or intelligence, to monitor or reconstruct someone’s movements, or to build general-purpose ALPR databases. The text also bars sale, licensing, advertising use, product development, and unrelated commercial use.
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Disclosure would be limited to specified recipients and situations, including certain toll functions, a particularized probable-cause warrant, and an imminent danger of death or serious bodily injury. In the emergency situation, disclosure must be documented and limited, and the requesting agency must apply for and obtain the specified warrant within 14 days. Reconciled toll-payment data generally must be deleted within 48 hours; the draft allows specified billing, collection, dispute, or proceeding records to be kept as needed under its terms.
What enforcement and remedies does the draft provide?
Information obtained in violation of the federal-use section generally could not be introduced by the federal government in a criminal, civil, administrative, or other proceeding. The draft makes an exception for a judicial proceeding alleging a violation of that section.
An aggrieved individual could sue the federal government. A state attorney general or another authorized state officer could also bring an action on behalf of residents. A prevailing individual plaintiff could receive actual or punitive damages, attorneys’ fees and costs, and other appropriate relief, including an injunction. Federal officials could face retraining, suspension, termination, or another penalty, subject to applicable due-process requirements.
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The draft permits NIST to test or research ALPRs and similar commercial technologies, and says it would not preempt a stricter federal, state, or local law. It also says it does not prohibit a non-federal entity from using non-federal funds for activity otherwise lawful under the Act. That funding provision does not erase the separate proposed grant condition: state and local governments could still face consequences for covered federal assistance if they did not adopt qualifying restrictions.
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The Ban Flock Act draft is distinct from H.R. 10366, the “No Federal License-Plate Observation and Camera Keeping Act,” or “NO FLOCK Act.” The Government Publishing Office lists H.R. 10366 as introduced on September 14, 2026, and referred to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. That separate bill would withhold 10 percent of certain surface-transportation apportionments from states that lacked specified ALPR restrictions. The GPO record for H.R. 10366 identifies its status and funding mechanism; it should not be treated as the Ban Flock Act.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What is the debate about?
Supporters frame the Ban Flock Act as a privacy and civil-liberties measure. 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 being able to move around a community without every move being monitored. Those are sponsors’ rationales, not findings that the draft has been enacted or that a court has resolved the constitutional questions.
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Police-technology supporters point to investigations and missing-person cases, while critics question who controls searches and whether warrant rules are sufficient. In a September 2026 Associated Press report, Flock’s vice president of communications, MoMo Zhou, claimed the technology had helped “solve approximately one million crimes and helped reunite roughly 10,000 missing people with their families.” Those figures are Flock’s claims as reported by AP, not an independent causal evaluation. Police Executive Research Forum executive director Chuck Wexler described the policy question as a balance between community interest in data use and police effectiveness in preventing crime.
The proposal debate is separate from Flock’s announced product safeguards. AP reported in August 2026 that the company announced mandatory audit and search controls for law-enforcement customers, including a tool intended to flag abnormal behavior and case-linked search codes. The same report described a planned reduction in standard retention from 30 days to seven days, with longer preservation for evidence tied to a case number; AP said the changes were to be implemented by January 1. These are company-announced changes, not requirements of the Ban Flock Act.
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What to take away
- The Ban Flock Act is a released proposal, not an enacted nationwide ban on local ALPR use.
- Its direct prohibition targets federal government use and access, including some data collected by other entities.
- Its main pressure on local police would be the proposed eligibility condition for assistance from five federal departments.
- Tolling-only systems would remain an exception, with strict rules on use, sharing, and retention.
- H.R. 10366, the NO FLOCK Act, is a separate measure with a different funding mechanism.
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