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Adding Flock cameras to America’s roads endangers regular citizens’ privacy and increases government surveillance over everyday life.
Flock Safety, a surveillance technology company, produces automated license plate readers which are popping up across the country, raising concerns about mass surveillance in the age of artificial intelligence. They capture license plate information, as well as vehicle information such as color and identifiable features.
Although these cameras were designed to aid law enforcement in criminal investigations, they don’t just track alleged criminals. A nationwide database accessible to police and government officials stores information about everyone’s location and movements, with no restriction to localities.
In a letter to the CEO of Flock, Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., called the company’s 120,000 cameras in 49 states an “unprecedented national surveillance network” that disregarded privacy rights. Anyone is capable of abusing a tool like that, including members of law enforcement. Police officers have previously used Flock cameras to stalk their love interests or ex-girlfriends, forcing the company to set new guardrails against the abuse of the system.
Authorities arrested a police officer in Kentucky after he used a Flock camera to stalk his ex-girlfriend more than 2,000 times. And he’s not the only one. At least 50 law enforcement officers have been accused of using these cameras for stalking, the Washington Post reported in August.
These cases, among many others, prove that it’s too tempting for law enforcement to abuse the power these cameras place at their fingertips.
Flock’s proponents argue that the cameras help catch criminals and aid police investigations. While this may be true, the end goal of solving crimes does not justify violating fundamental rights in the process.
Americans recognize that privacy is one of these fundamental rights. Police need a search warrant to go into people’s homes, and must show a judge probable cause before obtaining one.
With the exception of urgent emergencies or explicit permission, police also need a warrant to search phones and other private devices.
The United States government has criticized other regimes, such as the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and Chinese Communist Party, for their mass surveillance policies. Putting AI surveillance cameras on American streets is hypocritical at best, and a gateway to tyranny at worst.
Almost 100 cities and towns have banned the use of Flock license plate detectors. These range from the deep red Hood County in Texas to the leftist stronghold of Cambridge, Massachusetts.
A recent YouGov poll showed that these areas are not outliers. The survey found that 46% of respondents opposed the technology, compared to 38% who supported it. These cameras are anything but popular, yet hundreds of thousands of them line the streets.
Flock cameras, which exist in the name of safety, do not keep Americans safe at all. Nationwide surveillance creates far more problems than it solves, and threatens the rights Americans hold dear.
Skye Graham is a senior studying history.
