Trump picks a side in the Flock camera fight: ‘I like them’

BS BULLETIN:

President Trump says he supports the controversial Flock license-plate cameras because they help law enforcement catch criminals.
The technology is facing an unusual bipartisan revolt over privacy, warrantless surveillance and documented cases of police misuse.
Trump’s endorsement puts him opposite some prominent Republicans who have been among Flock’s loudest critics.

President Donald Trump has officially waded into the rapidly growing fight over Flock cameras.

And he’s on Team Flock.

Asked aboard Air Force One Sunday whether he would support the AI-powered license-plate cameras used by law enforcement, Trump acknowledged the privacy controversy but came down in favor of the technology.

“I sort of like ’em because of that, because of law enforcement,” Trump said. “But some people don’t. They think it’s an infringement.”

When a reporter noted that the cameras help police catch criminals, Trump made his position unmistakable: “But I like them.”

That’s a potentially significant intervention in a surveillance debate that has created some very strange political bedfellows.

Flock cameras automatically photograph passing vehicles and record information including license plates and vehicle characteristics. Police departments can then search that information while investigating crimes, locating stolen vehicles or searching for suspects and missing people.

Supporters consider them an extraordinarily useful crime-fighting tool.

Flock CEO Garrett Langley recently defended the technology on Fox News while acknowledging the privacy concerns surrounding it.

“I value my privacy,” Langley said, according to Mediaite, but argued the country must balance “privacy or safety.”

“What we have to prioritize as a country is compromise: how do we have our safety, and how do we balance privacy?”

Flock says its technology has helped solve more than 1 million crimes and 10,000 missing-person cases.

But opposition has been growing — and it isn’t confined to the left.

Republican Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee has pushed to prevent federal tax dollars from funding the cameras, while independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has called for banning them.

Other Republicans have raised alarms as well.

Rep. Chip Roy of Texas recently put his objection rather succinctly: “Mass Surveillance + Government + AI is a very, very bad combo for freedom.”

The Washington Post reported last month that Flock was changing its system following scrutiny over documented abuses. Among the changes are shortening its standard data-retention period from 30 days to seven and requiring law-enforcement searches to be connected to case information.

And just this weekend came a particularly ugly example of what critics fear.

A San Jose police officer was fired after authorities determined he improperly accessed Flock data to locate a woman who had allegedly been abused by the officer’s cousin — and then provided her location to that cousin.

San Jose Police Chief Paul Joseph said he was “furious that an officer would betray the public’s trust in that manner.”

Meanwhile, the scale of the technology is exploding.

More than 140,000 automated license-plate readers have now been publicly mapped around the country, with Flock hardware accounting for the overwhelming majority where manufacturers could be identified.

Flock’s Langley argues banning the technology because it can be abused makes little sense. “That’s like banning vehicles,” he told Fox.

His preference is regulation governing how long information can be retained and consequences for officers who improperly access it.

Civil-liberties groups remain deeply skeptical. The ACLU says Flock’s network effectively records the movements of enormous numbers of innocent motorists and warns that such databases can reveal remarkably detailed information about people’s lives.

That leaves Trump planted squarely in the middle of an increasingly uncomfortable argument for conservatives:

How much surveillance are you willing to tolerate if it catches more bad guys?

Trump’s answer, at least for now, is clear. He likes the cameras.