2026: The Year People Said ‘No’ To AI Surveillance

Election 2026 has come and gone, and the political consequences are many. Americans sent a message to Democrats and Republicans on a wide range of public policy issues — from immigration to the economy.

Artificial intelligence is perhaps the most important one. Artificial intelligence policy is no longer a “sleeper” issue, emerging as a top consideration on Election Day. Leading up to November, U.S. voters told candidates and elected officials alike to pump the breaks on AI escalation. Nearly two-thirds of Americans say AI is developing too fast. Most Americans want all data center construction to be stopped, Election Day showed it. Very few trust advanced AI unconditionally, with only 8 percent of voters consulting AI chatbots for election-related information this year.

Across the board, the belief in proceeding cautiously on AI development and deployment — with the proper guardrails — scores as an 80-20 issue, if not better. Just like most Americans — left, right and center — complain about the affordability crisis or support the deportation of illegal immigrants who commit crimes, most of America is concerned about AI run amok.

Pushing back against AI surveillance might be the most bipartisan issue of all. Across America, federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies have installed more than 140,000 automated license plate readers (ALPRs), including thousands of Flock cameras, to surveil Americans. Under the guise of public safety, the government has the ability to track all vehicles all of the time, not just suspected criminals. And it is tracking us constantly, with more cameras to come.

In Harris County, Texas alone, there are more than 4,000 cameras monitoring nearly five million people. The “Finding Flock” map of all ALPRs in the U.S. is jarring.)

Not surprisingly, the cases of misuse are mounting too. Democratic Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther recently paused the Ohio capital’s use of AI-powered license plate readers after yet another instance of abuse, when one police officer reportedly searched the same license plates hundreds of times. Police officers have even used ALPRs to stalk romantic interests dozens of times in recent years.

These are not outlier cases. The nonpartisan Institute for Justice has found nearly 300 incidents of ALPR abuse, including romantic stalking, wrongful stops and detentions, non-law enforcement use, and other types of misconduct. Misuse is so common that the Senate Judiciary Committee held a September hearing about ALPR overreach, addressing privacy concerns on both sides of the aisle.

Speaking about Flock’s indiscriminate data collection, Republican Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley criticized the “camera networks [that] harness artificial intelligence to pool what they capture into a national database that customers can search.” Quote: “The overwhelming majority of the Americans captured in those records did nothing wrong.”

The wrongdoer is Big Brother. There is zero justification to keep Americans in a state of constant surveillance. It is entirely unconstitutional, violating our Fourth Amendment rights. Last I checked, law enforcement needs probable cause and a warrant to keep tabs on U.S. citizens, who have the right to privacy — not sometimes, but always.