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In 1984, the Thought Police weren't looking for criminals. Neither is Flock Safety

99% of the plates they scan belong to people suspected of nothing.

242 cameras are watching Upstate South Carolina right now. Every car that passes gets photographed. That data goes into a national network. And nobody voted on any of it.

What Is Flock Safety?

Flock Safety puts cameras on poles at intersections and along roadsides. Small. Solar-powered. Easy to miss. Every car that drives by gets photographed. Your plate number, vehicle make, color, and location get uploaded to Flock's servers. Every time.

Here's what your police department didn't mention: that data doesn't stay in Greenville. Flock runs a national network. Police from other states can search it. Federal agencies can too. No warrant needed.

Researchers found three separate ways federal agents get into local camera data, including a back door that let outside agencies search it without anyone knowing. Flock's CEO denied having federal contracts on camera in July 2025. He admitted it three weeks later. Every drive you've taken is in there.

None of it requires a warrant. Your local police can't turn off the federal access.
And neither can you.

242 Cameras. Upstate South Carolina. No Public Vote.

Cameras are already watching. Flock Safety cameras are up across Upstate SC: Greenville, Spartanburg, Anderson, and surrounding areas.

Greenville: Greenville PD runs 57 Flock cameras. The first batch went up in January 2021, paid for with federal civil asset forfeiture funds. No city ordinance. No council vote on oversight. There are still no rules about who sees the data, how long it's kept, or who checks how it's used.

Spartanburg: City PD runs 15 cameras. The county's were deployed under Sheriff Chuck Wright… who pled guilty to federal criminal charges in May 2025. A convicted criminal had unrestricted access to a system tracking where you drive. Neither the city nor the county has an oversight policy.

From Greenville to Spartanburg to Anderson and beyond: Cameras first, questions never. No Upstate city or county has passed an oversight ordinance. Even when other cities tried, it didn't matter. Local governments can't control where the data goes once it's in Flock's network.

The official count undersells it. When Greenville went looking for more cameras, its own RFP required the new ones to connect with HOA and neighborhood cameras too. The city's SafeWatch program asks residents to register their Ring and Nest cameras for police use on demand. At least one Greenville HOA already runs its own license plate reader. The 57-camera figure is a floor, not a ceiling.

Find the cameras in your neighborhood.

Three Bills. All Stalled. Your Legislators Need to Hear From You.

Three bills to rein in license plate cameras are sitting in SC committee right now. None have had a hearing. As of February 2026, they're just waiting. That changes when legislators hear from you.

But even the strongest bill has a critical gap. All three regulate what government agencies can do with camera data. None address what Flock does with it. Flock operates the network. Flock holds the data on its servers. Flock decides which agencies can query which cameras. A 90-day retention limit means nothing if Flock keeps the data indefinitely. A ban on selling data means nothing if cross-jurisdiction search is a product feature. These bills need to be amended to regulate the network itself, not just the agencies plugged into it.

Bill Tracker

S447 In Committee, Senate Judiciary

Would regulate license plate reader systems statewide

See what this bill would change →

H3155 In Committee, House Judiciary

Would regulate automatic license plate readers

See what this bill would change →

H4013 In Committee, House Education and Public Works

Would regulate automated license plate readers

See what this bill would change →

Last updated: February 2026

S447 has gotten the furthest: it cleared a Senate Judiciary subcommittee, but the full committee hasn't acted. H3155 and H4013 haven't had any committee action at all. Meanwhile, a separate lawsuit (SCPIF v. SLED) is challenging the state's existing license plate database in court. How that turns out may affect how urgently legislators move.

Bill status is checked automatically each week during the legislative session.

But what about…

"Don't these cameras only catch criminals?" +

99.5% of the plates Flock scans belong to people not suspected of anything. Flock's cameras don't just record plate numbers. They log vehicle make, color, and travel patterns for every car that passes. That's a record of where everyone goes.

Source: EFF

"If you have nothing to hide, why worry?" +

The 4th Amendment protects everyone from government searches without cause, not just people with something to hide. These cameras log every trip your family makes. Every school run. Every doctor visit. Every church service. All of it goes into a government database, whether you've done anything wrong or not.

"Doesn't this reduce crime?" +

Austin ran its own city audit and couldn't find evidence the cameras reduce crime. These systems cost cities hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. Greenville paid with federal civil asset forfeiture money that bypassed normal council appropriations. We want public safety too. Show us the return on that investment.

Source: EFF · KUT Radio

"Isn't the data protected?" +

Flock couldn't even explain how data sharing got turned back on in Ventura County after the agency disabled it. Right here in SC, a law enforcement officer used SLED's database to look up his own car, then changed the record. When a reporter asked SLED about misconduct, they refused to answer. That's what protected looks like in practice.

Sources: CBS Los Angeles · Post and Courier

"Isn't this anti-police?" +

A Virginia police chief with 41 years on the job helped cancel his city's Flock contract. Chief Jim Williams of Staunton called residents raising privacy concerns "democracy in action." Back home, conservative Republican Rep. Garry Smith of Simpsonville has the same concern: "I've run into individuals in law enforcement who have taken advantage of their positions. The potential is certainly out there."

Sources: Augusta Free Press · Post and Courier

Tell Your Legislators: South Carolina Won't Be Watched Without a Vote.

Three bills are sitting in committee. The Upstate has 242 cameras and no rules governing them. Your legislators need to hear from you. Find your district below and we'll help you draft the message.