License Plate Readers and Stadium Face Scans Harden Domestic Surveillance
August 3, 2026
Police departments, federal immigration authorities, and private venues are rapidly deploying automated license plate readers, facial recognition, and mass biometric databases to track protesters, dissidents, and the general public. As corporate sales strategies and state enforcement apparatuses merge, municipal pushback and direct action are colliding with an escalating architecture of carceral control.
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‘Own the Narrative’: Leaked Flock Guide Shows How It Teaches Cops to Promote Its Tech
"This document shows a coordinated effort from Flock Safety to compel law enforcement agencies to convince our elected leaders to represent their interests as a company rather than the interests of concerned citizens."
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Expansion Of Flock Camera Systems Is Leading To Even More False Positives
Flock Safety’s aggressive expansion into the law enforcement market has been coupled with nearly constant negative coverage of its tech and its practices. Multiple cities have paused or cancelled their agreements with Flock following public outcry over the surveillance tech. Flock’s willingness to a…
- media and technology
- AI governance
- structural power
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Why a Flock Worker Quit: ‘They Lied’
Jonathan Paz’s job was to convince cities to buy Flock cameras. After initially being enthusiastic about the company, he started to get disillusioned.
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The ‘Guardrail Guy’ Went Viral for Posting About Flock Cameras. Then Someone Destroyed Them
Steve Elmers, also known as the “Guardrail Guy,” is done calling out license plate readers after two that appeared in his videos were vandalized.
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'I Would Never Do This To You:' Protesting Flock, Arizona Man Presents Plan to Surveil Government Officials
“They didn't understand it was satire in the beginning until the end,” Casa Grande, Arizona resident Jacob Petrosky told 404 Media. “They were not happy, they were very upset.”
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John Oliver on police surveillance: ‘Big Brother on steroids’
The host tore into ‘wildly invasive’ cameras, microphones and license plate readers that police use to track Americans John Oliver discussed the tools that police are using to keep track of Americans on the latest episode of Last Week Tonight. In recent years, the use of surveillance technology has…
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Sports venues are offering facial recognition to let people in. What are the risks?
Queues at sports events can be very long, even at large venues with many entrance gates. To speed things up, Geelong Football Club recently introduced an “express lane” option for club members. Instead of scanning tickets on their phone, members can opt in to facial authentication to enter the club’…
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NYPD Used High-Tech Surveillance to Find Gaza Paint Splatter Protester, Docs Show
Throwing paint on a statue at Columbia seems like a minor crime, but cops use tremendous resources when pro-Palestine protesters are in the crosshairs. The post NYPD Used High-Tech Surveillance to Find Gaza Paint Splatter Protester, Docs Show appeared first on The Intercept.
- structural power
- geopolitics
- OSINT methodology
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ICE Collected Nearly 1 Million People’s DNA Last Year—Including Young Children
Internal documents show ICE's DNA collection has skyrocketed in the second Trump administration. Now hundreds of thousands of people never convicted of a crime are in an FBI criminal database forever.
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Facial Recognition at Madison Square Garden
Last month, the story broke (alternate link) that Madison Square Garden uses facial recognition software on everyone entering the facility, and—among other groups—flags activists that oppose using facial recognition. Turns out that the system was shut off for Taylor Swift’s wedding. Evan Greer—one o…
- Cybersecurity