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Ranked #1 on Hacker News with 115 points and 37 comments.

So while I work with police departments regularly, I think it is critically important that technology be used reasonably.

While this may be off-putting to some of my clients, I worked with the Institute for Justice as an expert witness in their trial Schmidt v City of Norfolk . (Any opinions herein are my own and not those of IJ, to be clear.) The gist of that case was whether searches of historically cached ALPR data (automated-license-plate-reader) constituted an illegal search. 1

The judge ruled against plaintiffs in that case. Here is a quote from the judgment:

Consistent with Plaintiffs’ claims in this case and controlling precedent involving mass surveillance in public spaces, ALPR surveillance could become too intrusive and run afoul of [constitutional privacy standards] at some point. But when? While a definitive answer to that question is elusive, what is readily apparent to this Court is that, at least in Norfolk, Virginia, the answer is: not today.

The important point to note about this quote is “not today”. This will be a long winded post, but to try to keep it simple:

Long story short in my opinion everyone would be better off if states just mandated warrant procedures through state statutes.