Is the tide finally turning against the onslaught of government surveillance by license plate scanners?
Residents of Arnold City, Missouri are protesting, and have at least temporarily thwarted plans for the city to purchase these devices for the city, according to the patch.
License plate readers capture data on drivers for the purpose of finding stolen cars, people wanted for warrants, and other scofflaws.
But in the process, average citizens are having their movements tracked and logged in a massive database, that can potentially be used against them in the future, with no specific oversight.
For the most part, this slow construction of a nationwide surveillance network has gone unnoticed, other than by a few civil liberties watchdog groups. But now it appears that citizens may be fighting back, and at least slowing down the spread of these systems, and demanding some oversight, accountability, and limitations on the use of all this data.
A similar situation in Massachusetts resulted in significant restrictions and a civilian oversight board to monitor the use and application of the data collected.
Hopefully this is a positive trend that is spreading here to Missouri, and nationwide.