Americans have good reason to worry about the rapid spread of Flock Safety cameras. More than 6,000 governments in 49 states now use these swarms of cameras to monitor cars, tracking their movements throughout the day for law enforcement purposes. While catching criminals is always important, people fear their privacy rights are at risk, and government officials have already been caught abusing this technology. And there’s another reason to worry: I’ve found that my local government, at least, is avoiding the transparency that ensures accountability.This week, I filed a lawsuit against Genesee County in Michigan. In February, I submitted freedom of information requests to the Board of County Commissioners. I asked for a variety of records dealing with the 30 Flock cameras installed by the county. I wanted the contract with the company, audit logs showing how often other municipalities and law enforcement agencies have accessed the data, a map of the cameras’ locations, and how often the cameras had recorded my own license plate, as well as a few other documents.
I’ve been interested in technology like this since 12th grade, when I created a similar license-plate reader for a high school project. To train my device, I had to manually photograph each car in the school parking lot. Students and teachers raised concerns about privacy, which got me thinking they may have a point. I ultimately concluded that such an invasive technology has no place in a free society.
