I need to tell you about a search term that should make your blood run cold.
"Had an abortion, search for female."
That's what a Texas sheriff's office typed into a nationwide surveillance tool to track down a woman who exercised her constitutional right to reproductive care. The search pulled data from more than 6,800 networks and 83,000 cameras — including cameras right here in Illinois, in a state where abortion is legal.
Here's how it works:
A company called Flock Group sells automatic license plate readers to police departments across the country, marketed as a public safety tool. In reality, it's become a surveillance dragnet — one that lets any local law enforcement agency, anywhere, search a nationwide network of cameras for any reason they type into a box.
And it's not just reproductive care. In Richmond, Virginia — a city with an explicit policy against helping federal immigration enforcement — an ATF analyst used Flock's network to run immigration queries anyway. Richmond had to block federal access entirely just to protect its own residents from a company they never agreed to let ICE use.
Months ago, I launched a formal investigation into Flock Group alongside Oversight Committee Ranking Member Robert Garcia. We are demanding a full accounting of every search involving "abortion," "ICE," or "CBP." We are demanding Flock's contracts and communications with ICE. We are demanding to know what, if anything, they've done to stop this abuse.
I've spent my career fighting for privacy, civil liberties, and reproductive freedom, and I am not going to let a private company build a nationwide tracking network and call it a public service.
Will you chip in $25 or $50 to Equal Opportunity Now today to help us hold Flock accountable and elect leaders who will fight for your privacy?
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