John James Corruption & Ethics Michigan

Michigan Towns Are Switching Off Flock's License-Plate Cameras. John James Just Held a Fundraiser Hosted by Flock's Lobbyists.

Every host of John James' September 23 Washington fundraiser works at BGR Group, which has taken $590,000 to lobby for surveillance-camera company Flock — including the firm's president, a registered Flock lobbyist. As Michigan communities cancel Flock contracts, James has offered only generalities about balancing privacy and policing.

MAGA Report Cards · Sep 25, 2026

Michigan Towns Are Switching Off Flock's License-Plate Cameras. John James Just Held a Fundraiser Hosted by Flock's Lobbyists.

All over metro Detroit, towns are turning off Flock Safety's license-plate cameras. On Wednesday night, September 23, 2026, John James went to Washington and raised money from the company's lobbyists.

The Republican nominee for Michigan governor held a high-dollar reception at the offices of BGR Group, a lobbying firm that represents Flock, the Detroit Metro Times reported. Every one of the nine hosts on the invitation works at BGR.

Who was paying for the party

The invitation, obtained by Metro Times, set admission at $1,000 a person. Hosts were asked for $2,500, and "Co-Pilots" for $5,000. Guests could give up to $8,325 each, or $16,650 per couple. The special guest was Lee Zeldin, Trump's head of the Environmental Protection Agency.

The hosts included:

Erskine Wells, BGR's president — personally listed as one of four lobbyists working for Flock on the firm's latest federal lobbying report
Haley Barbour, the former Mississippi governor and a BGR founding partner
Bob Wood, BGR's chairman and CEO
Six more BGR principals, managing directors and executives

BGR has reported $590,000 in federal lobbying income from Flock since late 2024 — $50,000 in the last quarter of 2024, then $90,000 a quarter for six straight quarters through this June. Its latest report says it lobbied the House, the Senate and the White House for Flock on "public safety and security."

It isn't a new relationship for James. In February 2024, while he was running for re-election to Congress, he held a $500-a-person fundraiser at the same address, 601 13th St. NW — BGR's offices — with three of the same BGR figures among the hosts.

Why Flock is a fight in Michigan right now

Flock sells automated cameras that photograph every passing car and let police search where a license plate has been. At least 125 Michigan county and municipal law enforcement agencies have signed contracts with the company.

Police say it helps them find missing people and stolen cars. But residents have pushed back hard over how much tracking the cameras allow, how long the data is kept, and who can see it. Flock says it doesn't directly share data with federal agencies — but an analysis cited by Bridge Michigan found that state and local police around the country had run searches on behalf of federal agencies, including ICE.

The backlash is real:

St. Clair Shores ordered all 12 of its Flock cameras covered and switched off for six months this week, after residents raised privacy concerns.
Eastpointe voted last week to end its Flock contract. A day later, its police chief disclosed that two department employees had misused the system — one for personal reasons.
In all, at least seven metro Detroit communities besides St. Clair Shores have canceled Flock contracts.

And in Lansing, lawmakers from both parties have written a bill to put statewide limits on license-plate readers, including how long the data can be stored.

If it passes, the next governor will be the one to sign or veto it.

James' answer: balance

So where is John James on all this? In early September, he said balance was key: "Our Bill of Rights, our Fourth Amendment, our right to privacy is non-negotiable, but we also need to make sure that we are working within the Constitution to keep innocent people safe and, and put bad actors away." Neither James' campaign nor BGR answered Metro Times' questions.

What we do know is where his money comes from. This is the same candidate who took nearly $50,000 from DTE, Consumers Energy's parent company and their employees while both companies asked regulators to raise rates on Michigan families.

This isn't just a Michigan problem. In Texas, a sheriff's deputy searched 80,000 Flock cameras for a woman who took an abortion pill — at the request of her abusive partner. In the same state, a board Greg Abbott appoints spent at least $30 million from a car-insurance fee on AI cameras that log where Texans drive.

Michigan voters are asking their local councils hard questions about who gets to track their cars. The man who wants to run the state was in Washington collecting checks from the company's lobbyists — and didn't answer Metro Times' questions about it.

What the records show

On September 23, 2026, John James held a Washington fundraiser at BGR Group's offices, hosted entirely by BGR executives — including its president, a registered lobbyist for Flock. BGR has reported $590,000 in lobbying income from Flock since late 2024. At least eight metro Detroit communities have canceled or switched off Flock cameras over privacy concerns, a statewide limit is pending in Lansing, and James has offered only that privacy and policing need to be balanced.