What do Darth Vader, the ACLU and some Democrats and Republicans have in common?

They hate Flock cameras.

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, is launching an investigation into Flock Safety, demanding answers about how the company retains data and tracks vehicles.

Politicians aren't the only ones worried. The AI-powered surveillance cameras track, scan and preserve license plate numbers, feeding them into a searchable database that law enforcement and others can access. Citizens in blue and red states alike are protesting cameras that were installed to make them safer.

I'd expect pushback from Republicans, who tend to be wary about anything resembling a surveillance state. I'm more surprised by the resistance from the left.

Officials in St. Paul, Minnesota – a notoriously liberal city where talk of defunding the police was common in 2020 – are removing their Flock cameras over concerns about how the data it collected was kept and who had access to it. Santa Barbara, California, dropped them, too, after public backlash.

In other states, fed-up citizens are taking matters into their own hands. Police in Chester County, South Carolina, arrested three teenage boys for allegedly cutting down and destroying a Flock camera. I don't condone vandalism, but who wants to bet this........

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