Dent Schoolhouse celebrates 30 years with upgrades, new features

Our Take

Buried under a story about a 30-year-old haunted house, Local 12 drops a single line that should stop you cold: Covington is holding a meeting on "the future of surveillance cameras." No agenda, no vendor name, no mention of whether Flock Safety ALPRs are on the table. That's exactly how these programs expand in America — not with public debate, but as a footnote in a segment about scare mazes.

We've seen this pattern in town after town. A city council quietly discusses "upgrading" camera infrastructure, and six months later there's a network of license plate readers logging every car that passes, with data shared across jurisdictions and little public accounting for who gets access. Credit to Local 12 for at least flagging the meeting, but local reporting owes residents more than a passing mention when their movements are about to be tracked and stored.

If you're in the Covington area, that meeting is worth showing up to — ask who's selling the system, where the data goes, and how long it's retained. Check our camera map to see what's already deployed near you, and hit take action for tools to push back before surveillance becomes the default.