by Matt Agorist, The Free Thought Project:
The use of artificial intelligence in law enforcement presents growing concerns with the expansion of mass surveillance.
(The Rundown Live) It’s no secret that in 2024 the American police state already acts with wanton disregard for most civil liberties. From the county level all the way up to the federal, one of the most discounted constitutional rights of the American citizen is that of privacy.
To put it frankly, we are being spied on all the time. And it is happening with ever increasing frequency. We all know this. The existence of illegal mass surveillance programs hasn’t been a secret for over a decade, since government contractor Edward Snowden came forward as a whistleblower to reveal the NSA’s PRISM program in which millions of innocent Americans had their private data illegally swept up in an intelligence dragnet. And yet it is still one of the most blatant violations of basic rights that is widely known and simultaneously brushed aside by the citizenry.
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Case and point is the fact that just days ago the president signed into law new extensions to warrantless mass surveillance, exponentially expanding the unconstitutional spying capabilities of the federal government to unprecedented levels and hardly anyone even batted an eye. But the fact remains that this kind of illegal surveillance of Americans is nothing new, exemplified by the reporting of award-winning journalist Meyer Berger in his 1938 exposé for The New Yorker, police have been wiretapping American citizens to illegally spy on them since at least 1895.
Fast forward to the present day and police have all sorts of new toys to help them snoop on citizens. From pervasive Stingray technology to Fog Reveal “mass surveillance on a budget” and beyond, the tools being utilized to violate constitutionally protected privacy rights in the name of the “greater good” are becoming evermore sophisticated.
This has become particularly true in recent years with the rise of artificial intelligence, and it’s growing integration into law enforcement. One area in which AI has already seen some pushback from civil liberty advocates is it’s use in facial recognition technology wherein critics highlight several issues with the technology ranging from overall privacy concerns to faults in the technology leading to misidentifications and false arrests.
The premise of expanding AI surveillance into everyday law enforcement is quickly becoming more than just a concept. In a September interview with Police Chief Magazine, Exploring AI For Law Enforcement, AI expert Frank Chen discusses in an interview with San Mateo County undersheriff Chris Hsiung the potential general applications of integrating artificial intelligence with policing. In the conversation one line stands out (emphasis ours);
“Technology can help officers get to the scene of a crime with more awareness by tapping into cameras installed in fixed locations or even community members’ smartphones. Once there, officers can use technology to gather and analyze all kinds of data: eyewitness accounts, video surveillance, DNA, fingerprints, and other forensic data.”
While on the surface that may sound like a positive thing, helping cops more effectively do their jobs. When considering the fact that police don’t solve the vast majority of major crimes and the copiously documented history of abuse throughout the institution of law enforcement across the country, it may be wise to think twice about expanding the mass surveillance capabilities of the enforcers of the state.
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