Cameras have quietly appeared in thousands of US cities – now, their integration with AI is sounding alarms

What began as a tool to identify threats to national security is becoming a surveillance infrastructure that can be used to track everyone.

By: Jess Reia, University of Virginia, The Conversation

Outlets: The Conversation

Published: March 27, 2026

Words: 1,285

Last Updated: 4 months ago

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By Jess Reia, University of Virginia

For decades, cars dictated urban planning in the United States.

Few could have predicted that they would one day also double as nodes for surveillance.

In thousands of towns and cities across the U.S., automatic license plate readers have been installed at major intersections, bridges and highway off-ramps.

These camera-based systems capture the license plate data of passing vehicles, along with images of the vehicle and …

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