Expanding Surveillance Apparatus Targets US Working Women
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In May of 2025, a Texas deputy was found to have searched through recordings from 83,000 different Flock cameras to find a woman who he suspected of having an abortion. These cameras were located not just in Texas, but in Washington and Illinois, where abortion is legal. (1) The Flock ALPR (Automatic License Plate Reader) surveillance apparatus spans over 5,000 law enforcement agencies around the country and is searchable by any law enforcement entity with access, without a warrant. In 2024, the company also acquired Aerodrome, a manufacturer of drones for use in law enforcement. (2)
This does not only paint a shocking picture of the reality of a malignantly expanding spying network rapidly tightening its grip over people within the United States, this also is a reflection of a broader attempt by the forces of capital to target specific segments of the working class, in this example women seeking abortions. Maintaining control over women as a source of cheap, exploitable labor furthers the aims of the reactionary elements in the United States that seek to incentivize misogynistic violence both at the hands of the state and on an interpersonal level. In states with total or near-total bans on abortion, reported instances of intimate partner violence have increased as much as 10 percent. (3) Alarmingly, more and more police officers are being found to have utilized ALPR networks to stalk women even without the pretense of “investigating” suspected abortions - their victims include current and ex-partners and strangers. (4)
Though it may seem senseless, the utility of these acts of harassment and subjugation is not lost on the ruling class and their agents. As long as capitalism necessitates the existence of nearly half of the working class whose labor is deemed "unproductive"—as is observed in the sphere of domestic work and childrearing—working women will continue to be subject to increased levels of violence, surveillance and coercion as compared to men. New technologies will continue to be appropriated for the purposes of maintaining this system of control.
In response to the backlash against his company, Garrett Langley, CEO and cofounder of Flock said, “We’re not going to change humans, and humans make bad decisions.” As we know, there is nothing human about a system that mandates this level of violence in the name of “public safety”.
The task remains to attack the heart of the issue and to fight for revolution - to overturn the dominance of the bourgeoisie, and to wrest from them the tools with which they subjugate the working people of the world.