• Surveillance technology vendors, federal agencies, and wealthy private donors have long helped provide local law enforcement “free” access to surveillance equipment that bypasses local oversight. • The result is predictable: serious accountability gaps and data pipelines to other entities, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), that expose millions of people to harm. • The cost of “free” surveillance tools - like automated license plate readers (ALPRs), networked cameras, face recognition, drones, and data aggregation and analysis platforms - is measured not in tax dollars, but in the erosion of civil liberties. • The cost of “free” surveillance tools is measured not in tax dollars, but in the erosion of civil liberties. • The collection and sharing of our data quietly generates detailed records of people’s movements and associations that can be exposed, hacked, or repurposed without their knowledge or consent. • Those records weaken sanctuary and First Amendment protections while facilitating the targeting of vulnerable people.
Article Summaries:
- Surveillance vendors, federal agencies and wealthy donors routinely provide local police with “free” equipment-such as license‑plate readers, networked cameras, facial‑recognition software, drones and data‑analysis platforms-without tax dollars. The article argues that the true cost is the erosion of civil liberties and the creation of data pipelines that can be shared with entities like ICE, exposing millions to harm. It calls for cities to reject federal grants, vendor trials and private donations that lack oversight, and to enforce public hearings, competitive bidding, transparency and strict use policies. Examples include Denver’s drone pilots and Fall River’s continued use of a costly ShotSpotter system after funding was cut.
Sources: