Put guardrails on Flock

As anti-China rhetoric peaks this midterm season, establishment politicians reveal their hypocrisy. Neoconservatives and establishment liberals have long condemned China's social credit system and state surveillance as antithetical to Western liberal democracy. Yet many of these same politicians support domestic surveillance of their own citizens.

Flock cameras, the AI powered license plate readers now used by police departments nationwide, are the clearest example. They are marketed as tools for solving crimes and finding missing people. But they are increasingly used to surveil the working class, and especially women. In Georgia, a former police chief used Flock data to track his ex-girlfriend 600 times. In Wisconsin, an officer checked whether his girlfriend visited an abortion clinic. In Florida, a man ran 192 searches to stalk an ex. This is not public safety. It is a mass infringement on ordinary people's privacy.

If Illinois is serious about protecting women and minority communities, we need strict guardrails on Flock systems now, or we should eliminate them entirely.

Sandeep Pant, Palatine