Fact check: Mike Rogers pushed Patriot Act, but isn’t to blame for Flock cams

Abdul El-Sayed is claiming that license plate readers are proliferating ‘thanks to Mike Rogers’
Mike Rogers was a big proponent of government surveillance and helped extend the Patriot Act in 2011
But a long line of votes and community decisions helped grow license readers like Flock, which was founded after Rogers left office

Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed is criticizing Republican opponent Mike Rogers for supporting government surveillance while he was in Congress, tying it to the proliferation of automated license plate readers across the country.

In a series of ads, El-Sayed blames Rogers’ support of the Patriot Act and other legislation for the nationwide network of more than 120,000 Flock cameras and other readers that record the license plate numbers of every car that drives past.

“Does it ever feel like you’re in a cage being watched?” El-Sayed wrote in an Aug. 19 tweet. “Well, you are. By Flock cameras, thanks to Mike Rogers.”

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Polls show the cameras are divisive, and communities in Michigan and elsewhere are reconsidering their use even as police defend the cameras.

There’s no doubt Rogers was an enthusiastic backer of the Patriot Act that followed the 2001 terror attacks, but blaming him for Flock cameras is a stretch.

While police have used funding with roots in the Patriot Act to pay for the cameras, Rogers left the US House in 2015. Flock was founded in 2017.

Claims about Rogers’ surveillance record are among many that Bridge Michigan is fact-checking ahead of the Nov. 3 election.

The winner of the Senate race will succeed retiring Democrat Gary Peters.

Rogers and the Patriot Act

In early October, the El-Sayed campaign rolled out an attack ad featuring audio clips of Rogers’ previous statements on privacy alongside a standalone website chronicling the Republican’s record on surveillance-related policy in the House.

Rogers took office in the House in January 2001 and chaired the House Intelligence Committee from 2011 to 2015, when he left office.

He was one of 357 members of the House to vote for the Patriot Act, which became law on Oct. 26, 2001. Approved overwhelmingly by Democrats and Republicans alike, the law expanded the capabilities of law enforcement to spy on people without their knowledge, detain immigrants without charges and expand the government’s ability to look at records held by a third party.

“Mike Rogers has a deep record of expanding mass surveillance and infringing on privacy rights,” El-Sayed spokesperson Cole Wozniak said in a statement.

“In Congress, Rogers played a critical role in crafting the infamous Patriot Act, now well recognized for violating constitutional privacy rights.”

Rogers was a freshman legislator when the Patriot Act passed. Records show he was consulted about the law and helped craft some provisions but was not its principal architect.

By the time the law was extended in 2011, however, Rogers had a far larger role — and the Patriot Act had become far more controversial.

El-Sayed’s ads highlight a 2013 exchange Rogers had while in Congress in which he argued that the lack of public complaints about privacy violations proved expanded surveillance was working.

“You can’t have your privacy violated if you don’t know your privacy is violated,” Rogers said to law professor Stephen Vladeck, who disagreed with the assessment.

As House Intelligence Committee chair, Rogers pushed to prolong the law’s surveillance powers, House records show. The extension was approved along party lines, with overwhelming opposition from Democrats.

“Mike doesn’t believe that terrorists deserve the same rights as American citizens. He’s also adamantly against any attempt to spy on American citizens,” Rogers campaign spokesperson Alyssa Brouillet said in a statement to Bridge Michigan.

Back to Flock

So what does this have to do with Flock cameras? Money.

Section 1014 of the original Patriot Act authorized grant funding to be allocated to state and local governments to implement antiterrorism measures. That led Congress to fund programs through separate laws for a variety of equipment — including automated license plate readers.

Since 2002, the federal government has awarded more than $55 billion in state, local and tribal threat preparedness grants, according to a 2024 report from the Government Accountability Office.

It’s unclear how much of those grants went for automated license plate readers, but the Wall Street Journal reported in 2012 that about $50 million in grants over the preceding five years paid for the technology.

The Homeland Security grants are ongoing: This year, Genesee County used $30,000 to renew services for 10 Flock cameras, records show.

This month, Rogers posted that “Flock cameras shouldn’t be used to track law-abiding citizens. As a former FBI guy, I know security and liberty aren’t enemies. Good government protects both.”

During this month’s debate with El-Sayed, Rogers said that local governments, not the federal government, should be responsible for placing guardrails on surveillance technology like Flock cameras.

“Mike vehemently opposes unchecked use of Flock cameras to track law-abiding citizens. Security and liberty aren’t enemies. Good government protects both,” Brouillet wrote to Bridge.

Bottom line

Rogers was a powerful backer of government surveillance during the war on terror that followed the 2001 attacks, but saying Flock cameras are “thanks to Mike Rogers” is misleading.

The Patriot Act opened a floodgate of federal funds for local governments to buy equipment that included license plate readers.

But numerous other decisions by both Congress and local entities led to the purchase of license plate readers like Flock — which was founded after Rogers left office.