Coffee with milk, or milk with coffee?

By: Rosemary Aahanna Hill

How you answer that question changes the entire definition of your morning drink. And it’s the exact same problem we are facing with automated license plate readers like Flock Safety cameras.

Is it a device that captures criminals, or a tool used to stalk women?

Statistically, the math is staggering. Independent audits and civil rights data suggest that when these systems lack strict guardrails, they can generate up to 5 times more unauthorized privacy abuses and personal lookups by officers than actual legitimate criminal arrests. Massachusetts is currently one of the only New England states without statewide legislative guardrails. When a system allows off-duty searches, vague justifications, and zero automated supervisor alerts, the tool flips. It ceases to be a law enforcement network that occasionally has a bad actor. It becomes a massive surveillance dragnet that happens to occasionally catch a criminal.

The danger isn’t theoretical.

From Kansas to California, multiple police chiefs and officers have been fired or criminally charged for weaponizing this exact network to track ex-partners, wives, and acquaintances. Technology is only as good as its guardrails. Without mandatory case numbers, strict geofencing, and public audit logs, we aren’t buying public safety—we are funding a massive privacy invasion.