25 July 2026. Representative Thomas Massie announced that he will introduce a federal bill to withhold federal money from municipalities and police departments that deploy Flock-style automated license plate reader cameras. The announcement came in a post on X at 2:45 PM. If introduced as described, this would be the first federal attempt to attach
Aren’t most of them funded by local governments anyway?
(And then when the city councils or residents vote to stop it, the cops leave them up anyway?)
My local government had funds offered by a federal grant they didn’t apply for. A neighboring county had applied for the federal grant, received a ton of money, and was dishing it out to police across the region.
Sounds like the police have too much money…
Between this and local police working with ICE, it feels like a federal government takeover of everything. The sheriff of a neighboring county has his salary paid by ICE/DHS, and that isn’t right. Federalized police departments.
This is so such local governments have other funding withdrawn until they get rid of the cameras, presumably