Party flip? Democrat Acton supports ICE collaboration, GOP Ramaswamy concerned about Flock cameras

Our Take

Credit to News 5 Cleveland for catching a genuinely weird moment in Ohio politics: the Democrat in the governor's race backing police collaboration with federal immigration enforcement, while the Republican is the one raising red flags about Flock Safety's camera network. If you've been paying attention to how ALPR data actually gets used, this shouldn't surprise you — mass surveillance infrastructure doesn't care who's holding the warrant. Once a statewide network of license plate readers exists, it becomes available to whoever has the access, whether that's a local detective or a federal agent doing immigration sweeps.

This is exactly the scenario privacy advocates have warned about for years: these cameras get sold to city councils as a tool for catching car thieves, but the data doesn't stay in a neat jurisdictional box. Flock's own admissions about nationwide lookups and the patchwork of agencies sharing access mean that a camera installed by your local PD can end up feeding federal enforcement priorities nobody voted for. That a Republican candidate is the one naming this out loud should tell you surveillance skepticism isn't a partisan issue — it's a power issue.

Whatever you think of either candidate, the real lesson here is that this technology outlives election cycles and campaign promises. Check our camera map to see what's already watching your plates, and head to our take-action page if you want to push back before the next administration decides how to use it.