Senators Bernie Sanders and Jeff Merkley and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez introduced legislation on Oct. 2 to ban the use of automatic license plate readers by federal agencies. The Ban Flock Act would also strip federal funding from state and local governments that deploy the AI surveillance technology to track Americans across the country.

The bill specifically targets cameras utilized for automatic license plate recognition (ALPR) in an effort to stop the proliferation of these tools. By restricting federal access and removing financial incentives for local municipalities, the lawmakers intend to make the operation of such surveillance systems untenable.