Walid Hakim is a South Carolina Marine Corps veteran whose career includes work as a police officer and restaurant owner. Born in Kuwait, he moved with his family to South Carolina in 1985, graduated from Lexington High School and attended Newberry College. He enlisted in the Marines in 1990 and worked in military police at Marine Corps Air Station New River in North Carolina. He has also worked as a political consultant and actor and was executive director of South Carolina's Libertarian Party. Based in Columbia, Hakim is the Green Party candidate for South Carolina governor in 2026.
Case
Networked automated license-plate cameras can assemble searchable records of vehicle movements. Candidates and officials disagree over whether to ban the systems, keep them with limits, or defend them as investigative tools. This tracker separates outright bans from narrower restrictions.
Role at the time: Green Party candidate for governor of South Carolina, in an emailed statement
Statement summary
In an email to Dispute Index on October 5, 2026, Walid Hakim, the Green Party candidate for governor of South Carolina, said his campaign opposes Palantir and every company connected to it, including Flock. He said the objection is not to the idea of a network of cameras but to law enforcement's easy access, which he said allows abuse, stalking and unauthorized surveillance, and to the companies' collection of data on people's travel habits for their own purposes.
“We oppose Palantir and all companies associated with them, including Flock. It’s not the idea of having a network of cameras that we oppose. It’s the easy access by law enforcement to allow abuse, stalking and unauthorized surveillance, and the data being collected by these companies of our travel habits to be used for their own purposes.”
Good evening, We oppose Palantir and all companies associated with them, including Flock. It’s not the idea of having a network of cameras that we oppose. It’s the easy access by law enforcement to allow abuse, stalking and unauthorized surveillance, and the data being collected by these companies of our travel habits to be used for their own purposes. Walid Hakim
The reference point is whether networked license-plate reader systems such as Flock should exist and be used. Hakim says his campaign opposes Palantir, Flock and the companies connected to them, but that the objection is not to having a network of cameras. He objects to easy law-enforcement access and to companies' use of travel data. He rejects these vendors while accepting camera networks in principle, so we labeled it Mixed or conditional rather than Condemned. He names no law, contract or ban, so we placed it on the Guardrails step.
Statement dates: October 5, 2026
Statement dates: October 5, 2026
Statement dates: October 5, 2026
Statement dates: October 5, 2026
