Ban the use of AI for mass surveillance

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Key insights

The quoted support for red lines against mass domestic surveillance comes from both civil-rights advocates and major AI companies or executives, not from only one sector.
A recurring distinction is between domestic or public-space surveillance of ordinary people and other AI uses such as foreign intelligence or general national security work.
Much of the debate centers on specific infrastructures such as facial recognition, biometric databases, license-plate readers, social scoring, predictive policing, and commercially purchased personal data.
The disagreement is partly about scope: some quotes call for categorical bans, while others focus on banning warrantless, unauthorized, or indiscriminate surveillance and building tighter legal frameworks.
Supporters repeatedly describe AI as an amplifier of surveillance because it lets authorities process huge datasets cheaply and at scale, turning existing monitoring systems into broader population tracking.

Arguments for

Constitutional and democratic harms

Supporters say AI mass surveillance enables generalized monitoring of ordinary people, from their movements to their presence in public spaces, without individualized suspicion. In their view, that kind of always-on tracking is incompatible with democratic values, civil liberties, and constitutional protections for privacy, speech, and association.

The Fourth Amendment was written specifically to stop the government from engaging in generalized surveillance and warrantless searches. Flock cameras don't just identify criminals — they create a database documenting where law-abiding citizens worship, seek medical care, conduct…

Henry Dillon · Jul 28, 2026 · full quote
EFF opposes the use of generative AI for the purposes of mass government surveillance because that use supercharges unconstitutional violations of civil liberties and because government secrecy prevents the public and lawmakers from knowing when generative AI models make mistakes…

Matthew Guariglia · Jun 4, 2026 · full quote
Using these systems for mass domestic surveillance is incompatible with democratic values. AI-driven mass surveillance presents serious, novel risks to our fundamental liberties.

Dario Amodei · Feb 26, 2026 · full quote
This is a flashing red siren for anyone who cares about keeping America safe and free. The Trump administration wants to use A.I. to spy on Americans without a warrant and to give A.I. power to make life and death decisions without humans involved. That would put our Constitution…

Greg Casar · Feb 27, 2026 · full quote
Live facial recognition is not just another camera on a street corner; it is a mass surveillance tool that can scan every face in a crowd, compare people in real time against a watch-list and permanently change what it feels like to stand in the public square.

Lord Strasburger · Mar 9, 2026 · full quote

Discrimination and overpolicing

Supporters argue biometric and predictive systems are disproportionately used against Black and Brown communities, migrants, protesters, journalists, and other marginalized groups. They say these tools deepen overpolicing, discrimination, criminalization, and repression rather than neutrally improving safety.

As a Chicagoan, I know Black and Brown communities are no strangers to overpolicing, surveillance, and criminalization. And I have had a front row seat as the Trump administration has aggressively accelerated the use of technology and artificial intelligence in its militarized im…

Delia C. Ramirez · Jul 15, 2026 · full quote
Facial recognition should never be part of New Yorkers’ lives, least of all when they’re buying groceries or unlocking their front door. We’ve seen over and over how facial recognition perpetuates discrimination and systemic bias, and we’re proud to continue fighting for legislat…

Corinne Worthington · Mar 2, 2026 · full quote
Biometric surveillance poses an urgent threat to our fundamental rights. Facial recognition and other biometric surveillance technologies have been used by authoritarian regimes around the world to target journalists, protestors, and marginalized communities; they are increasingl…

Jenna Ruddock · Feb 5, 2026 · full quote
Many AI systems have been proven to magnify discrimination and inequality. In particular, so-called ‘predictive policing’ and biometric surveillance systems are disproportionately used to target marginalised groups including racialised, working class and migrant communities. Thes…

Open Rights Group · Jul 26, 2024 · full quote
Amnesty International’s own research has shown that the deployment of harmful technologies such as facial recognition and automation in the public sector have threatened the right to privacy and social protection in India and have led to discrimination and exclusion of marginaliz…

Erika Guevara Rosas · Feb 20, 2026 · full quote
ICE and CBP agents are using facial recognition technologies to track, target, and surveil individuals across the country. The Trump administration isn't deploying these tools to maintain public safety. They are doing so to silence lawful speech and to punish dissent. I'm proud t…

Edward J. Markey · Feb 5, 2026 · full quote

AI plus purchased data

Another line of argument focuses on scale: governments can buy or collect vast personal datasets and use AI to analyze them without warrants or meaningful oversight. Advocates say this turns plate-reader networks, brokered data, and other records into population-level tracking systems that evade existing legal safeguards.

Big Tech has built a massive surveillance economy to track, package and sell deeply detailed information about our movements, purchases, preferences, and relationships. Now, out of control federal agencies are buying this data to evade constitutional protections and track and sur…

William Tong · Mar 26, 2026 · full quote
Federal agencies are sidestepping longstanding legal protections by buying vast amounts of personal data and using artificial intelligence to analyze it—without a warrant, without oversight, and without accountability. That is not how our system is supposed to work.

Raúl Torrez · Mar 24, 2026 · full quote
The government wants to use AI to analyze Americans’ information obtained without a warrant through purchases from data brokers and “incidental” collection from foreign intelligence surveillance. Congress must act now and demand closures to these loopholes that undermine our Cons…

Jeramie D. Scott · Apr 14, 2026 · full quote
Combining that data with the power of AI would expand the Pentagon’s surveillance powers exponentially, and companies like Anthropic are well within their rights to push back on that outcome.

Samir Jain · Mar 16, 2026 · full quote
The one by my house, it hits me every time I go on the turnpike…Daily commuters, their whole habits are there. These are pinging tens of thousands of license plates every day here in our state. They're not just going after criminals. They're pinging everyone.

David Boyer · Jun 25, 2026 · full quote
The idea of surveillance that overreaches legal mandates has been an ongoing concern, but with AI, it gets supercharged. It happens at scale, and I think updated rules are needed.

Steve Feldstein · Mar 2, 2026 · full quote

Human-rights red lines

Some proponents argue certain AI surveillance uses cross a red line altogether because they cannot be reconciled with human rights. They call for strict bans on biometric mass surveillance, facial recognition, social scoring, and similar systems, saying the harm is not cured by delayed review, narrow exceptions, or even perfect accuracy.

Strictly prohibit arbitrary, indiscriminate and mass surveillance used for law enforcement purposes, including biometric and AI applications, such as facial recognition technology, AI systems that create or expand facial recognition databases through the untargeted scraping of fa…

Gina Romero · Apr 21, 2026 · full quote
We will champion the report and call for governments and other stakeholders to implement its recommendations, including the need to strictly prohibit the use and transfer of surveillance technologies that fail to comply with international human rights law, as well as to ban the u…

ARTICLE 19 · Jun 15, 2026 · full quote
In human rights terms, there is no salient difference between real-time and post-remote biometric identification. Threats posed to rights and freedoms are not reduced just because authorities or companies have extra time to review footage.

Chloé Berthélémy · Aug 7, 2026 · full quote
Failing to enact a total ban on public biometric surveillance creates broad national security exemptions that jeopardize fundamental rights.

Matt Mahmoudi · Aug 7, 2026 · full quote
Indiscriminate AI-powered mass surveillance of the population must be prohibited.

United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms while Countering Terrorism · 2025 · full quote
It’s past time for the federal government to end its use of this abusive surveillance technology. A great place to start is its use for immigration enforcement, given ICE and CBP’s utter disdain for the law. Face surveillance in the hands of the government is a fundamentally harm…

India McKinney · Feb 5, 2026 · full quote

Arguments against

Public safety and crime prevention

Opponents say surveillance tools can be critical for public safety and crime prevention, and that police need effective technologies to protect communities. From this perspective, the priority is getting ahead of criminals rather than discarding useful tools outright.

We ask them to work with the communities using this technology to decide what rules should govern it and not to spread misinformation or ban a critical public safety tool outright that is helping to make communities safer.

MoMo Zhou · Sep 4, 2026 · full quote
When I was in justice, my ultimate vision for that part of the criminal justice system was to achieve, by means of AI and technology, what Jeremy Bentham tried to do with his Panopticon. That is that the eyes of the state can be on you at all times. Similarly, in the world of pol…

Shabana Mahmood · 2026 · full quote
When people talk about just one of these, privacy or safety, they’re prioritizing the wrong thing, and what we have to prioritize as a country is compromise. How do we have our safety, and how do we balance privacy?

Garrett Langley · Aug 23, 2026 · full quote

Rules rather than blanket bans

A second view is that the issue should be governed, not categorically banned. These quotes favor community decision-making or legal regimes built around necessity, proportionality, transparency, accountability, and lawfulness so privacy and safety can be balanced.

The new legal framework must include a meaningful regulatory regime which operationalises principles such as necessity, responsibility, proportionality, transparency, accountability and lawfulness. These principles should then structure and constrain law enforcement powers, enabl…

William Webster · Feb 24, 2026 · full quote
When people talk about just one of these, privacy or safety, they’re prioritizing the wrong thing, and what we have to prioritize as a country is compromise. How do we have our safety, and how do we balance privacy?

Garrett Langley · Aug 23, 2026 · full quote
We ask them to work with the communities using this technology to decide what rules should govern it and not to spread misinformation or ban a critical public safety tool outright that is helping to make communities safer.

MoMo Zhou · Sep 4, 2026 · full quote

Deterrence and compliance

Some arguments for allowing broader surveillance stress deterrence and oversight benefits. In this view, pervasive AI monitoring can supervise officers and encourage citizens to stay on their best behavior.

Every police officer is going to be supervised at all times [...] AI will report that problem [...] Citizens will be on their best behavior

Larry Ellison · 2024 · full quote
When I was in justice, my ultimate vision for that part of the criminal justice system was to achieve, by means of AI and technology, what Jeremy Bentham tried to do with his Panopticon. That is that the eyes of the state can be on you at all times. Similarly, in the world of pol…

Shabana Mahmood · 2026 · full quote

Middle ground

Authorized use with oversight

Some more conditional voices say AI can have an important role in national security or other public functions, but only if domestic surveillance is limited by warrants, explicit legal authorization, and clearer frameworks before expansion. They present the lack of judicial oversight and prior deliberation as the key problem, not every possible surveillance use.

AI has an important role in national security. But surveillance of Americans without judicial oversight and lethal autonomy without human authorization are lines that deserved more deliberation than they got.

Caitlin Kalinowski · Mar 7, 2026 · full quote
This has effectively given police a very long leash to experiment with these technologies. And now we're in a tipping point situation where it's about to be expanded all over the country, and there's a real necessity for those legal frameworks to be in place.

Jasleen Chaggar · Aug 7, 2026 · full quote
AI may not be used to: • Conduct mass surveillance, facial recognition, or social scoring unless explicitly authorized by law and governing body.

Transportation Authority of Marin · Mar 9, 2026 · full quote
Whether through the GSRA or another vehicle, Congress must work together to pair a reauthorization of the surveillance authority with warrant requirements.

Allie Maloney · Jun 24, 2026 · full quote

Across the quotes, supporters of a ban frame AI mass surveillance as a threat to privacy, constitutional rights, democratic freedoms, and equal treatment, especially when combined with biometrics or purchased data. Opponents and conditional voices accept some surveillance uses or tools for public safety, but argue the central question is whether strict law, oversight, and community governance can make such systems legitimate.

Cast your vote:

Results (119 votes):

Total (119 votes)

For 112 (94%) Abstain 2 (2%) Against 5 (4%)

For (111)

James Talarico
Texas state representative (D-Austin)

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votes For and says:

Flock cameras have no place in Texas.
AI Verified source (Sep 4, 2026)

added 16d ago

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Delegate
Stacy Garrity
Pennsylvania Treasurer and Republican candidate for governor of Pennsylvania.

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votes For and says:

Flock cameras are an intrusive invasion of privacy and they should be banned.
AI Verified source (Sep 4, 2026)

added 22d ago

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Delegate
Josh Shapiro
Governor of Pennsylvania

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votes For and says:

This is not something in the public interest. I think law enforcement needs to have tools to keep communities safe. Flock cameras are not a tool that I support.
AI Verified source (Sep 2, 2026)

added 24d ago

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Delegate
Bernie Sanders
U.S. Senator from Vermont

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votes For and says:

We must come together to stop Flock and AI mass surveillance. That is why I will soon be introducing legislation to do just that.
AI Verified source (Aug 28, 2026)

added 29d ago

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Ron DeSantis
Governor of Florida

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votes For and says:

Go after criminals — great, let’s all do that. But surveilling just regular Floridians’ movements, and how that data’s used, that’s a bird of a different feather.
AI Verified source (Aug 26, 2026)

added 25d ago

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Delegate
Chloé Berthélémy
Senior Policy Advisor at European Digital Rights (EDRi), focusing on digital rights and biometric surveillance.

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votes For and says:

In human rights terms, there is no salient difference between real-time and post-remote biometric identification. Threats posed to rights and freedoms are not reduced just because authorities or companies have extra time to review footage.
AI Verified source (Aug 7, 2026)

added 1mo ago

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Delegate
Matt Mahmoudi
Amnesty AI and human rights researcher

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votes For and says:

Failing to enact a total ban on public biometric surveillance creates broad national security exemptions that jeopardize fundamental rights.
AI Verified source (Aug 7, 2026)

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Delegate
Henry Dillon
Secretary of the West Virginia Freedom Caucus and a West Virginia state legislator.

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votes For and says:

The Fourth Amendment was written specifically to stop the government from engaging in generalized surveillance and warrantless searches. Flock cameras don't just identify criminals — they create a database documenting where law-abiding citizens worsh...
more AI Verified source (Jul 28, 2026)

added 1mo ago

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Delegate
Tim Burchett
U.S. Representative for Tennessee's 2nd congressional district.

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votes For and says:

No Federal agency may purchase, deploy, operate, access, or contract for any automated surveillance system that identifies, tracks, or records individuals.
AI Verified source (Jul 21, 2026)

added 29d ago

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Delegate
Graciela Guzmán
Illinois State Senator.

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votes For and says:

Congress must stop that cycle: abolish DHS, end federal data purchases that sidestep constitutional protections, hold corporations accountable, and protect states defending our people.
AI Verified source (Jul 15, 2026)

added 2mo ago

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Delegate
Bruce Nestor
Attorney based in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

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votes For and says:

The growth in surveillance technology and the use of artificial intelligence to augment that physical force pose a direct threat to our remaining democratic institutions and freedoms and require immediate action by Congress before the forces of repre...
more AI Verified source (Jul 15, 2026)

added 2mo ago

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Jesse Franzblau
Associate Director of Policy at the National Immigrant Justice Center.

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votes For and says:

Lawmakers must also act at the federal level, including by cutting funds for ICE or Border Patrol, and redirecting funds away from surveillance-related contracts and towards communities.
AI Verified source (Jul 15, 2026)

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Delegate
Tania Unzueta
Political Director and co-founder of Mijente.

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votes For and says:

Nearly ten years later, that same surveillance infrastructure is generating even greater profits. Palantir alone has received more than $1.8 billion in federal contracts since 2025, including a $1 billion DHS agreement that allows ICE and CBP to buy ...
more AI Verified source (Jul 15, 2026)

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Delegate
Paromita Shah
Executive Director of Just Futures Law.

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votes For and says:

ICE and CBP are not only immigration policing agencies; they are also central pillars of the new security state with a rapidly expanding surveillance apparatus powered by AI-driven technologies, private contractors, and massive data-sharing systems.
AI Verified source (Jul 15, 2026)

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Delia C. Ramirez
U.S. Representative for Illinois's 3rd congressional district.

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votes For and says:

As a Chicagoan, I know Black and Brown communities are no strangers to overpolicing, surveillance, and criminalization. And I have had a front row seat as the Trump administration has aggressively accelerated the use of technology and artificial inte...
more AI Verified source (Jul 15, 2026)

added 2mo ago

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Henry C. "Hank" Johnson Jr.
U.S. Representative from Georgia; member of the House Judiciary Committee.

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votes For and says:

Americans cannot afford gas, groceries, or healthcare, yet the Trump Administration and MAGA Republicans are pouring money into funding these mass surveillance tools used by ICE agents operating with impunity. It has got to stop. We must fight back.
AI Verified source (Jul 15, 2026)

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Delegate
Alex Turner
AI safety researcher and former Google DeepMind research scientist.

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votes For and says:

I resigned from Google DeepMind bc it broke its founding promise by selling AI to the military without restrictions against killer robots or mass spying. For months, I worked to stop this but watched powerful ethicists and institutions choose silenc...
more Verified source (Jul 15, 2026)

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Delegate
Bruce Schneier
Security technologist and author

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votes For and says:

Now that we recognize the danger of AI-enhanced mass surveillance, we can make the policy choices not to implement it.
AI Verified source (Jul 10, 2026)

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Delegate
Franco Giandana Di Gena
Policy analyst at Access Now.

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votes For and says:

AI tools are supercharging surveillance and suppression of protesters, journalists, human rights defenders, and other communities at risk. We therefore echo calls for the adoption of human rights-centered binding legal standards and global governance...
more AI Verified source (Jul 7, 2026)

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Delegate
Zachary Lampell
Senior Legal Advisor and Coordinator of the Digital Rights Program at the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law.

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votes For and says:

We can and should implement red lines where AI cannot comply with human rights.
AI Verified source (Jul 7, 2026)

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International Center for Not-for-Profit Law
International legal organization working on civil society, digital rights, and the rule of law.

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votes For and says:

We can and should implement red lines where AI cannot comply with human rights.
AI Verified source (Jul 7, 2026)

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Delegate
Daniela Amodei
President and co-founder of Anthropic.

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votes For and says:

The reason we chose fully autonomous weapons and mass domestic surveillance as the areas where we simply can't say yes is because the technology is so new that we do not believe the laws may be perfectly designed to account for how the technology cou...
more AI Verified source (Jul 2, 2026)

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Sapiens First
AI policy advocacy organization promoting democracy, shared prosperity, and safety.

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votes For and says:

Ban AI-Enabled Mass Surveillance
AI Verified source (Jul 2026)

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Delegate
Zach Lampell
Senior Legal Advisor and Coordinator for Digital Programs at the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law.

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votes For and says:

Governments should adopt clear prohibitions or moratoria on AI systems and uses that pose unacceptable risks to human rights.
AI Verified source (Jul 2026)

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Council of the European Union
EU Council of governments

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votes For and says:

AI systems that pose a threat to people’s safety, rights or livelihoods are banned from use in the EU. The use of real-time remote biometric identification systems such as facial recognition by law enforcement authorities in public spaces is also pro...
more AI Verified source (Jun 29, 2026)

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Delegate
David Boyer

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votes For and says:

The one by my house, it hits me every time I go on the turnpike…Daily commuters, their whole habits are there. These are pinging tens of thousands of license plates every day here in our state. They're not just going after criminals. They're pinging ...
more AI Verified source (Jun 25, 2026)

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Delegate
Béatrice Fresko-Rolfo
Member of Monaco’s National Council and delegate to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

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votes For and says:

In the wrong hands, [AI] becomes a tool for mass surveillance, predictive policing, risk rating, social scoring, and even the censorship of political opinions. AI, however, does not confine itself to merely watching; it is therefore up to us to set l...
more AI Verified source (Jun 24, 2026)

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Delegate
Allie Maloney
Policy Analyst at Americans for Responsible Innovation; former Scoville Peace Fellow at the Federation of American Scientists.

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votes For and says:

Whether through the GSRA or another vehicle, Congress must work together to pair a reauthorization of the surveillance authority with warrant requirements.
AI Verified source (Jun 24, 2026)

added 2mo ago

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Against (5)

MoMo Zhou
Vice President of Communications at Flock Safety.

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votes Against and says:

We ask them to work with the communities using this technology to decide what rules should govern it and not to spread misinformation or ban a critical public safety tool outright that is helping to make communities safer.
AI Verified source (Sep 4, 2026)

added 18d ago

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Delegate
Garrett Langley
Founder and CEO of Flock Safety, a public-safety technology company that provides automated license-plate recognition and surveillance systems.

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votes Against and says:

When people talk about just one of these, privacy or safety, they’re prioritizing the wrong thing, and what we have to prioritize as a country is compromise. How do we have our safety, and how do we balance privacy?
AI Verified source (Aug 23, 2026)

added 15d ago

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