Flock Cameras have popped up on roads all across American communities. Wikimedia Commons

The frequency of Flock Inc.’s cameras in American cities has grown exponentially since the tech giant’s founding in 2017. But unlike most traffic cameras, they record far more than just a vehicle’s license plate. Flock cameras with integrated AI are largely placed on the sides of roads, performing billions of vehicle scans on a monthly basis. Flock claims to record the license plates and models of these vehicles, storing the information in a massive database, in order to help police resolve traffic violations and escaped criminals. However, this vast database of vehicles consists very sparsely of criminals or rowdy drivers, contains frequent mistakes in matching license plates to the correct state, and, most controversially, is subject to minimal regulation when it is shared with law enforcement agencies, as reported by the ACLU. Year after year, Americans have traded more of their privacy and liberties with the goal of purchasing more security, but the result has been a permanent loss of both.

Shortly after the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001, fears of more terrorism prompted the swift passage of the USA PATRIOT Act. But the law’s violation of the constitution has diminished any patriotism it has inspired. It allows the FBI to seize personal data including phone records and internet searches of an individual without a prior court order, and requires private banks and financial institutions to perform intrusive surveillance on their own customers’ transactions. Despite criticism of the law as a violation of the fourth amendment, it has set a dangerous precedent for expanded tyranny, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic. Draconian lockdowns that banned people from most activities outside their homes were not only economically devastating to small businesses, but required an even larger surveillance state. With a nationwide network of Flock’s surveillance cameras, enforcing this tyranny would only become easier due to their ability to track the movement of vehicles and match them to their drivers. And, during the next major crisis that is used as an excuse to curtail our liberties, governments will surely use this new technology to enforce their tyranny.

As a result, a bipartisan push to restrict the growth has reached both halls of congress. Representatives Thomas Massie (Republican, Kentucky) and Ro Khanna (Democratic, California) have both prepared legislation to end government contracts with Flock. Similarly, as public backlash against Flock cameras has skyrocketed last month, numerous cities are now pausing the construction of or altogether ending their contracts with Flock. But merely halting new governmental tyranny is just the first step to restoring respect for our Constitution and Bill of Rights that our Founding Fathers envisioned.