As police turn to surveillance technology to solve crimes, critics worry about privacy

Our Take

CBS Pittsburgh's segment covers ground we see in local news markets across the country: a police department rolls out cameras, drones, and license plate readers, touts a few solved cases, and critics get a brief mention before the story moves on. Credit to the CBS Pittsburgh team for at least putting the privacy concern on screen — plenty of local coverage skips that part entirely.

But "critics worry" is doing a lot of work in that headline. The real question isn't whether privacy advocates are uneasy — it's whether anyone in Pittsburgh has seen the retention policies, the vendor contracts, or an audit log showing who queried the system and why. Flock Safety and similar ALPR networks routinely get installed with little public debate, then quietly expand their reach: more cameras, more data sharing with other agencies, sometimes other states. The track record on transparency is not reassuring, and "it helped solve a crime" is not the same as "it was worth the tradeoff."

If you're in the Pittsburgh area, check our camera map to see what's already been spotted on local roads, and visit our take-action page if you want to push your city council for real answers instead of a press release.