Sanders introduces bill to ban the federal government from using Flock

桑德斯提出法案，禁止联邦政府使用 Flock

Flock, whose cameras scan license plates across the country, continues to draw public anger, and now Senator Bernie Sanders wants the federal government out of the business altogether. Sanders (D-Vermont) on Friday introduced the Ban Flock Act, which would bar federal agencies from using automatic license plate readers (ALPRs) or tapping into data collected by readers run by local police and private companies.

Flock 公司的摄像头在全美范围内扫描车牌，持续引发公众愤怒。现在，参议员伯尼·桑德斯（Bernie Sanders）希望联邦政府彻底切断与该业务的联系。周五，桑德斯（佛蒙特州民主党籍）提出了《禁止 Flock 法案》（Ban Flock Act），该法案将禁止联邦机构使用自动车牌识别系统（ALPR），或接入由当地警方和私营公司运营的识别系统所收集的数据。

Despite its title, the bill doesn’t call out Flock in the text and covers any and all ALPR systems. The bill allows exceptions only for toll collection and for uses that Congress approves in future legislation, which would have to limit data retention to no longer than 48 hours. State and local governments would be dinged financially for not complying if the bill became law. (Like most bills, this one faces long odds.)

尽管法案名称如此，但其正文并未专门点名 Flock，而是涵盖了所有自动车牌识别系统。该法案仅允许在收费站扣费以及未来经国会立法批准的情况下使用，且数据保留时间必须限制在 48 小时以内。如果该法案成为法律，不遵守规定的州和地方政府将面临经济处罚。（像大多数法案一样，该法案通过的前景并不乐观。）

Starting the first fiscal year after enactment, they would lose grants from five federal departments, including the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security, unless they ban the tech. Americans could also sue the federal government over violations, and state attorneys general could enforce the law.

从法案颁布后的第一个财政年度开始，除非这些政府部门禁止使用该技术，否则它们将失去来自司法部和国土安全部等五个联邦部门的拨款。此外，美国公民可以就违规行为起诉联邦政府，各州总检察长也可以执行该法律。

Flock is the largest ALPR vendor in the U.S., according to Sanders, with more than 120,000 cameras. In a blog post back in February, the company said its network processes more than 20 billion vehicle reads each month. Under increasing pressure from communities that are protesting the product, suspending their use, and, at an escalating rate, canceling their contracts, Flock has tightened its rules.

据桑德斯称，Flock 是美国最大的 ALPR 供应商，拥有超过 12 万个摄像头。在今年 2 月的一篇博客文章中，该公司表示其网络每月处理超过 200 亿次车辆识别记录。在社区抗议、暂停使用以及合同取消率不断上升的压力下，Flock 收紧了其规则。

In August, CEO Garrett Langley, who’d previously said that how police use the cameras is up to local agencies, announced a new default data retention period of seven days, down from 30. Customers must also now use an audit tool that locks officers out pending review when it flags unusual searches. In one of the highest-profile cases of an officer abusing Flock’s platform, a former Milwaukee officer pleaded guilty to misconduct after searching for his then-partner and her ex 179 times, listing the reason as “investigation.”

今年 8 月，首席执行官加勒特·兰利（Garrett Langley）宣布将默认数据保留期从 30 天缩短至 7 天。此前他曾表示，警方如何使用摄像头由当地机构决定。此外，客户现在必须使用一种审计工具，当系统标记出异常搜索时，该工具会锁定警员权限，等待审查。在最受关注的一起警员滥用 Flock 平台的案件中，一名密尔沃基前警员因搜索其当时的女友及其前任 179 次（理由均填写为“调查”）而承认行为不当。

(During a recent podcast interview, investor Jason Calacanis suggested a “double-key” system in which two people must approve a search, and Langley said the idea is “on the whiteboard.”) Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Senator Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) are co-sponsors. We’ll be sitting down with Langley at our upcoming Disrupt event, October 13-15 in downtown San Francisco.

（在最近的一次播客采访中，投资人杰森·卡拉卡尼斯（Jason Calacanis）建议采用“双重密钥”系统，即搜索必须由两人批准，兰利表示这个想法“已经在白板上规划了”。）众议员亚历山大·奥卡西奥-科尔特斯（Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez）和参议员杰夫·默克利（Jeff Merkley）是该法案的共同提案人。我们将在 10 月 13 日至 15 日于旧金山市中心举行的 Disrupt 大会上与兰利进行深入交流。