Police praise crime-fighting value as critics allege mass surveillance
Across the country and up and down ballots, candidates from both parties are increasingly on the attack over Flock cameras, the AI-powered nationwide network of automated cameras that record license plates and other characteristics of all passing vehicles. The system allows law enforcement agencies to search and share that data.
Wisconsin’s candidates for governor want to limit the devices, while Pennsylvania’s say they support a ban. A Michigan congressional candidate called them “un-American,” and a Florida Senate candidate is selling merchandise opposing them.
The cameras are sold by Atlanta-based Flock Safety, which has said they are running in 6,000 communities in every state but Alaska. The devices have become a new campaign issue that candidates and strategists see as part of a backlash against powerful technology companies.
That backlash connects to broader debates over the future of artificial intelligence and the associated boom in data center construction, according to the candidates and strategists.
Police say the cameras are an invaluable crime-fighting tool. Critics, however, say the pervasiveness of the network amounts to unconstitutional warrantless mass surveillance.
The campaign targeting marks the latest stage of a backlash that has built through the summer. MSI previously reported that Flock cameras were vandalized across at least 36 states as opposition grew, and that the AI infrastructure backlash spans the political spectrum ahead of the midterms, with resistance reaching statehouses over surveillance technology.