At least 54 US cities have canceled or rejected Flock license plate camera contracts in 2026 as privacy concerns and false alerts spark nationwide backlash.
I see nothing wrong with what you’re doing in public being available to law enforcement. It’s already legal to record it, a cop can pull out his phone and record you and it’s not illegal already
Even a police officer cannot just follow someone around all day every day, without reasonable articulable suspicion. They would also be guilty of harassment and/or criminal stalking.
Again, it’s not that a camera is recording that’s the problem. It’s the infrastructure behind those cameras that aggregate all the data into a single database which requires no cause to search. Anyone with a badge/title can track anyone throughout the whole country, with no probable cause, no warrant, and no oversight. They don’t even have to say why they’re searching the system.
An ex partner fleeing an abusive boyfriend/girlfriend that happens to be a police officer (or that has a police officer buddy) can and will be hunted down by that ex, and nobody will know until it’s too late. This system directly puts people in danger.
at least 50 documented cases across the United States in which law enforcement officers have been charged with or accused of misusing AI-powered automated license plate reader systems to conduct unauthorized surveillance of intimate partners, ex-partners, or women they wanted to meet. In 26 of those cases, prosecutors and investigators concluded that officers used the technology specifically to spy on wives, girlfriends, former partners, their exes’ new partners, or women they sought to approach.
These systems also get used by government agencies (on both sides of the spectrum) to track anyone that disagrees with their political stance, fishing for ways to harass, jail, or run them out of town/state. Governments given this type of power stop being democracies and become dictatorships; because anyone that could or would challenge them get hunted down.
I see nothing wrong with what you’re doing in public being available to law enforcement. It’s already legal to record it, a cop can pull out his phone and record you and it’s not illegal already
You’re forefathers are weeping from the grave. Land of the Free. Lol.
I’m forefathers?
Did you read the article provided?
Even a police officer cannot just follow someone around all day every day, without reasonable articulable suspicion. They would also be guilty of harassment and/or criminal stalking.
Again, it’s not that a camera is recording that’s the problem. It’s the infrastructure behind those cameras that aggregate all the data into a single database which requires no cause to search. Anyone with a badge/title can track anyone throughout the whole country, with no probable cause, no warrant, and no oversight. They don’t even have to say why they’re searching the system.
An ex partner fleeing an abusive boyfriend/girlfriend that happens to be a police officer (or that has a police officer buddy) can and will be hunted down by that ex, and nobody will know until it’s too late. This system directly puts people in danger.
These systems also get used by government agencies (on both sides of the spectrum) to track anyone that disagrees with their political stance, fishing for ways to harass, jail, or run them out of town/state. Governments given this type of power stop being democracies and become dictatorships; because anyone that could or would challenge them get hunted down.
There are thousands of cases of finding missing persons using cameras
https://www.whsv.com/2026/08/01/deputy-uses-flock-cameras-find-missing-girl-less-than-30-minutes/
If you compare to 50 instances of abuse, is that a good tradeoff
It’s not a good trade off. Just because dystopian surveillance sometimes does something good does not outweigh all the bad it does on a regular basis
That’s a valid opinion, but let’s not pretend it’s all downside.