Flock surveillance spreads across the South as red-state lawmakers seek to axe '1984'-style tracking tools

State lawmakers in West Virginia 's Freedom Caucus are seeking to ban AI-powered Flock surveillance cameras statewide, arguing the technology violates citizens' Fourth Amendment right to privacy.

"The West Virginia Freedom Caucus strongly opposes the unchecked expansion of automated surveillance technologies, including Flock Safety camera systems, automated license plate readers (ALPRs), AI-powered facial recognition, multimodal vehicle recognition, and emerging 'gun detection' software that claims to identify armed citizens based on body shape or movement," West Virginia Delegate Chris Anders, the Chairman of West Virginia's Freedom Caucus, said in a statement to Fox News Digital.

"These technologies represent a dramatic expansion of government surveillance that is fundamentally at odds with the Fourth Amendment," Anders added.

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"No state or local government should be mass tracking the daily movements of law-abiding citizens without a warrant. Mass surveillance has no place in a free society," Anders also said in a statement posted to the caucus' X account.

The caucus is calling on all state municipalities to immediately remove automated license plate readers such as the ones run by the security company Flock Safety.

"The Constitution does not disappear because technology advances," Anders added.

The caucus plans on combatting the cameras and surveillance technologies by reintroducing a previously failed legislative measure called the Fourth Amendment Restoration Act.

The bill would prohibit a series of AI-powered surveillance technologies from being used by law enforcement and other agencies in the state. The technologies it would ban include facial recognition software, surveillance drones, license plate readers and more.

"For two consecutive years, the Fourth Amendment Restoration Act has been introduced in the West Virginia Legislature, yet it has failed to reach the Governor's desk. That must change," Anders also said, placing blame for the bill's previous failures at the feet of the state's legislative leadership.

"Despite growing public concern over government surveillance, Speaker Roger Hanshaw and House Judiciary Chairman JB Akers declined to bring the bill forward for consideration. As a result, the House was never given the opportunity to debate or vote on the legislation," Anders wrote in an email to Fox News Digital.

"If House leadership continues to deny the people's elected representatives the opportunity to vote on this fundamental constitutional issue, the Freedom Caucus will use every parliamentary tool available to insist that the Fourth Amendment Restoration Act receive an up-or-down vote in both chambers. Constitutional rights should never be quietly buried in committee," Anders added.

Chairman Akers, in a response to Anders' comments, told Fox News Digital, "We actually passed a bill last session that limits the amount of surveillance law enforcement may engage in on private property. Unfortunately, Chris Anders submits sloppily drafted bills given to him by outside groups. In the 4th Amendment context, his proposals would prevent even normal law enforcement actions that conservatives support."

"Last session, he tried to amend a bill in a way that would have prevented police from entering property even if a dead body were in plain view in the front yard. Bluntly, his idea was dumb," Akers said of Anders' proposal draft. "He left me no choice but to say that. If he’s going to blame others for failing to get his bills through, then he needs to do better work. Frankly, I think he’d rather see his bad bills fail so he can then scream RINO for clicks."

Other Freedom Caucus members also objected to the Flock cameras.

"The Fourth Amendment was written specifically to stop the government from engaging in generalized surveillance and warrantless searches," West Virginia Freedom Caucus Secretary Henry Dillon said in a statement. He argued that "Flock cameras don't just identify criminals — they create a database documenting where law-abiding citizens worship, seek medical care, conduct business, and travel."

"That is fundamentally incompatible with a free society," he said.

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Another Freedom Caucus member, state Sen. Craig Hart, pointed to a series of alleged police abuses involving Flock cameras in Georgia , including a 2025 incident in which Braselton Police Department Chief Michael Steffman was arrested for allegedly using automated license plate readers to stalk and harass people.

According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Atlas of Surveillance, at least five West Virginia municipalities incorporate Flock Safety license plate readers, while other municipalities like Wheeling and the state capital of Charleston operate drones, camera registries and intelligence fusion centers.

The American Civil Liberties Union is suing the West Virginia city of Huntington after its mayor and city council agreed to a $2.1 million deal with Flock for AI-powered surveillance equipment.

"If the Court allows the contract to proceed, Huntington would be blanketed in license plate recognition cameras with vehicle fingerprint technology, live video cameras, gunshot detection audio devices, and even automatically dispatched drones," the ACLU wrote in a statement .

The ACLU said more than 50 citizens attended the city council meeting to voice their disapproval of the agreement.

Meanwhile, Huntington Mayor Patrick Farrell argued that Flock cameras in other states have already helped catch West Virginia suspects.

Recounting a pursuit of a murder suspect who allegedly shot a woman in the head near Huntington, Farrell said "he was going back to Michigan, and luckily for us, some other city had license plate reader cameras that caught the car."

"That gave us the lead that led to his arrest in Michiga...

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