The Camera's Eye: Weighing Security Against Surveillance The recent backlash against Flock Safety, a police technology firm that provides automatic license plate readers (ALPRs) to thousands of agencies nationwide, has highlighted the tension between security and surveillance.
Critics on the populist right have seized on concerns about government overreach and civil liberties, while some on the left dismiss ALPRs as an "Orwellian threat" to the Fourth Amendment.
But what does this controversy really mean? Is it a genuine concern for individual rights or simply a knee jerk reaction to the latest technological innovation?